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Canals full of solid waste, seriously obstructing the water flow |
Accordingly, the Urban Committee of HCMC People’s Council yesterday examined the management, maintenance, and operation tasks at Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Tide Control Station (sited on Phu My Street in Binh Thanh District) and Binh Trieu Tide Control Station (on Dinh Bo Linh Street of Binh Thanh District).
In the investigation, Deputy Director of the HCMC Department of Construct Dang Phu Thanh stated that certain districts have low terrain, along with continuous ground subsidence, leading to limits in drainage flows and negative impacts on maintenance and dredging activities of the city’s drainage system.
Besides, due to climate change, more heavy rain with unprecedentedly high precipitation in a short time has made it a tough challenge for the drainage ability of the system.
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Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, Head of the Urban Committee (HCMC People’s Council) asks questions relating to the operation of the pump station. (Photo: SGGP) |
More seriously, the situation of land encroachment into the drainage system infrastructure for illegal construction works still exists. Adding to that is the grave state of solid waste disposal on canals against the law, which limits water flow.
Dreadful as it is, these law violations receive no punishments as there is not yet any sanctions for acts of damaging the drainage system.
Seeing such inadequacies, Deputy Director Thanh proposed a more synchronous cross-level management of drainage canals in order to have more power for maintenance and dredging tasks to ensure water flow. This will contribute to the fight against urban flooding. Simultaneously, there must be propaganda activities to prevent residents from illegally throwing solid waste on canals and streets.
Also, the Ministry of Construction is suggested to add more content into the sanction decree for actions that negatively affect the drainage flow (disposing construction waste into manholes, sewers).
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The investigation team is examining the status of Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Tide Control Station (Photo: SGGP) |
In the working session, there were proposals for the Urban Infrastructure Construction Investment Projects Management Unit to evaluate the performance of 6 tide control stations and the tackling of littering, land encroachment into drainage system facilities. Reports should be submitted to HCMC People’s Committee for timely adjustments to better suit the reality.
Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Tide Control Station is established on the confluence of 2 branches of Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal and Van Thanh Canal. This station plays a key role in preventing urban flooding due to high tides in the districts of Tan Binh, Binh Thanh, Go Vap, Phu Nhuan, 1, 3, and 10 with a 33.93-square-kilometer wide basin.
