HCM CITY — Overlaps in authority and irrational regulations mean HCM City's inland waterways are badly managed, affecting the very development of the city, officials have said.
The city has nearly 1,000km of rivers and canals, most of which function as water transport routes and are classified as national-level and city-level routes.
There are 16 national-level routes measuring more than 250km managed by the Viet Nam Inland Waterway Administration.
The city Department of Transport manages 87 city-level routes with a total length of 570km.
The administration manages boat lanes and ports and wharves on the national routes.
However, the areas between the boat lanes and banks are not managed by any agency.
This causes administrative problems related to a clutch of other issues like underwater works, urban order and security, sanitation, urban architecture, housing, illegal encroachment of rivers and canals, and landslides.
Along the banks of rivers and canals managed by the administration, thousands of illegal houses have mushroomed.
For example, along the Kenh Te – Kenh Doi Canal, hundreds of houses have been illegally built in districts 4, 7 and 8, severely affecting the safety of waterway traffic and sanitation.
Ngo Dinh Quang, director of the City Inland Waterway Port Authority, said: "If there are violations, we can only issue warnings and cannot penalise offenders because we lack the authority to do so."
To better manage the national-level routes, the city People's Committee recommended to the Ministry of Transport in August to restructure their management by handing over the authority to the city.
This would help simultaneously manage several issues like waterway traffic safety, ports, wharves, water supply and drainage, sanitation, dredging, and building embankments along rivers and canals, it said. — VNS
