Ho Chi Minh City’s chronic flooding problems could be over in 10 years if the city went ahead with its 2008 flood control plan, the Ho Chi Minh City Irrigation Science Association said on Tuesday.

This canal, blocked by garbage and mud, in HCMC has been narrowed to make way for development. Canals like this around HCMC were once important drains for rainwater.

“If dikes and the 12 major flood control dams along the Saigon and Nha Be Rivers have been constructed by 2020, it will have solved the flood problems caused by high tides and heavy rains,” Nguyen An Nien, chairman of the association, told the Daily on the sidelines of a seminar on the progress of the water drainage plan.

The Government had approved the VND11.5 trillion flood prevention plan in 2008 but the city and related ministries were still in the preparatory stage, Nien said.

“I cannot say when the construction of the project will start," he added.

The association’s chairman said the project budget would need to be doubled to VND20 trillion because of the increased price of construction materials.

Under the plan, HCMC, Long An Province and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development would build a total of 12 dams to control high tides in a one-million hectare area. The 12 dams include Phu Xuan, Muong Chuoi, Sonh Kinh, Kinh Lo, Thu Bo, Kenh Hang, Rach Tra, Vam Thuat, Ben Nghe, Tan Thuan Ben Luc and Xang Lon Canal.

Many other smaller dams, dykes and canal dredging projects in the inner city would be built to widen the city’s channels that empty to the south of the city.

Pham The Vinh, a scientist from the Southern Institute of Water Resources Research, told the Daily there was 1,000 kilometers of canal in the city, but they weren’t effective anymore at mitigating floods, as many had been damaged, narrowed or filled completely to make way for housing or roads.

“For example, Tau Hu-Ben Nghe Canal used to be 50 meters wide, but now it is half that,” he said.

Another scientist who used to be an official of the city’s Department of Transport said 30 hectares of canals in District 2 had been filled to make lands for housing.