HCM CITY — It is necessary to have a unit responsible for applying a geography information system for flood prevention, Tất Thành Cang, HCM City’s deputy secretary of the Party Committee, has said.

This unit will be responsible for analysing technical issues related to the drainage systems to overcome shortcomings in the management process of these systems, he said at a conference on applying geography information systems to managing the city’s drainage system on Thursday.

Flood mitigation requires structural and non-structural measures to be applied simultaneously, he said.

Even though it has been included in the seven breakthrough programmes for the period 2016-20, the flood mitigation programme is progressing too slowly, he said.

His remarks were supported by Nguyễn Quốc Thái, director of the HCM City Urban Drainage Company Ltd, the organisation responsible for researching and reporting the application of geography information systems.

To develop a geography information system, the responsibility of managing the drainage system should be assigned to only one unit, either the city’s Department of Transportation or the Steering Centre of the Urban Flood Control Programme, Thái said.

The use of a geography information system will help evaluate drainage projects, develop flood control maps, collect locations of conflicting currents, manage wastewater treatment plants and develop flood warning maps so that citizens can take alternate routes to avoid getting caught in floods, he added.

Developing databases for the drainage system, including databases for the sewer, canal and headwork systems, will help to evaluate the causes of floods and solutions for flood mitigation, he said.

It will also provide a foundation for future research of drainage system planning, helping to assess the quality of flood mitigation constructions and to detect defects in the sewer system and canal encroachments, he said.

The city’s drainage system should be divided into different drainage basins, and each basin should be operated and managed by one unit, Thái added.

City party secretary Đinh La Thăng said flood prevention measures must be applied during the dry season, not waiting until the rainy season.

He stressed the importance of immediate and simultaneous implementation of the measures for flood mitigation during the peak of the rainy season.

District administration and city departments should collaborate closely to conduct canal dredging and drainage system maintenance during the dry season, he said. — VNS