Tô Ngọc Vân Street in Thủ Đức City usually floods amid heavy rain. — VNA/VNS Photo Hồng Vân

HCM CITY — Flooding in Thủ Đức City will cause millions of dollars in damage if the city government does not take preventive measures, an expert said.

Nguyễn Huy Dũng, a senior disaster risk management specialist for the World Bank in Việt Nam, said that 31 per cent of Thủ Đức's land area floods during rains, and this is expected to rise to 37 per cent by 2050.

Annually, the floods cause losses of US$54 million, or 13 per cent of the city's revenues, and that figure could rise to $84 million by 2050.

Streets such as Tô Ngọc Vân, Đặng Văn Bi, Hồ Văn Tư, Đặng Thị Rành and Dương Văn Cam in Thủ Đức often flood when there is heavy rain, causing traffic jams and affecting traffic safety.

For many years, flooding has been a big worry causing traffic chaos and misery for local people every time it rains heavily or the river tides rise.

However, many anti-flooding reservoirs that the city has planned have remained on paper for years for lack of land and technical standards as well as pricing issues.

One of them is the Gò Dưa reservoir project in Thủ Đức, which is still suspended for lack of feasibility studies and issues regarding investment procedures.

The project is expected to cover over 20 ha and cost over VNĐ1 trillion ($43.1 million). Besides the reservoir itself, the project would also clean up 15km of rivers and canals, and install a high-capacity pumping system. Once completed, the project was expected to prevent flooding in a 1,300 ha area.

Nguyễn Đỗ Dũng, director of enCity Urban Solutions, an international consultancy for solving urban problems with offices in Việt Nam and Singapore, said Thủ Đức should build tidal control corridors with sluices placed at the canal mouths to prevent both flooding and salinisation.

Reservoirs are the optimal solution to store runoff when the drainage system can not function due to rising river water levels, he added.

HCM City chairman Võ Văn Hoan said local authorities need to ensure that any urban planning for Thủ Đức dovetails with the overall plans for HCM City.

It is expected that the general planning project for Thủ Đức City will be submitted to the HCM City administration in November and the central government in December.

Thủ Đức City was created in 2020 by merging the former district of the same name with Districts 9 and 2.

Spreading 211 square kilometres and with a population of more than one million, Việt Nam's first "city within a city" is expected to account for 30 per cent of HCM City’s economic output and 7 per cent of the country's per year.

It is also set to become an "innovative urban area" encompassing hi-tech parks in the erstwhile District 9, the university neighborhood of Thủ Đức District and a new urban area and financial center on the Thủ Thiêm Peninsula in District 2. VNS