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Dredging has begun in a section of the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal where it flows into the Sai Gon River soon after a groud-breaking ceremony in HCM City yesterday. A 58-metre-wide sluice gate is expected to protect more than 600ha of low-lying areas in seven districts. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Vu |
HCM CITY — Work began yesterday on the construction of a sluice gate on Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Cannal to help control chronic tidal flood in HCM City.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hoang Van Thang and deputy chairman of the HCM City People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Tai broke the ground of the VND300 billion (US$15 million) project in Binh Thanh District.
The 58-metre-wide sluice gate is expected to protect more than 600 hectares of low-lying areas in seven districts from flooding during high tide, according to officials.
Nguyen Ngoc Cong, deputy head of the city's Flood Control Centre, said the Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe sluice gate would help reduce flooding in Districts 1, 3, 10, Binh Thanh, Phu Nhuan, Go Vap, and Tan Binh.
It would have a pumping system with a capacity of 48cu.m per second, and was scheduled for completion in December 2012.
Fifty per cent of the 2,095-square-kilometre city was vulnerable to flooding during high tides, Cong said.
The city also plans to spend $550 million to build a 172km-long dyke system along the Sai Gon, Vam Co Dong and Soai Rap rivers to keep out floods. It suffered from record high tides last month, which flooded several residental areas.
Binh Thanh is among the districts worst affected by high tides on the Sai Gon River. —VNS
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