HO CHI MINH CITY TIDAL FLOOD CONTROL PROJECT - WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

Tidal flood control

Canal water level regulation – reducing flooding caused by heavy rain

Ensuring waterway navigation

Landscape enhancement and environmental improvement

Essentially, the city's outdated urban drainage canal network operates under the "communicating vessels" principle (Bernoulli's Principle). Simply put, the drainage system consists of interconnected piping between city streets and canals; when tides rise, local street flooding occurs even without heavy rain. Water cannot drain, severely affecting urban aesthetics and residents' daily lives.

The primary objective of the tidal flood control project is to prevent this phenomenon by blocking high tides in major rivers with closed sluice gates, preventing them from affecting the inner city (570 km², Districts 1, 4, 7, 8, Nha Be, and Binh Chanh).

Goal 2: Canal water level regulation – reducing flooding caused by heavy rain

 
Beyond high tides, the outdated urban drainage network combined with daily human activity contributes to localized flooding. When heavy rain coincides with high tides, water cannot be discharged into major rivers because the tides push it back onto streets. With small-diameter, obstructed drainage pipes, floodwaters recede slowly.
Thus, the project's second goal is to pump water from canals into major rivers and to lower tidal levels within the enclosed zone. When water drains effectively, street flooding is minimized. The project achieves this via a high-capacity pumping station system rated at 96 m³/s.


Other Goals: Ensuring waterway navigation and improving water environment aesthetics

 
Because the system is enclosed, navigation could be affected; however, ship locks are integrated into major sluices at busy river junctions, such as Phu Dinh, Cay Kho, and Muong Chuoi.
Additionally, thanks to their enclosed design, sluice gates can retain water in inner-city canals to preserve the river landscape's aesthetics and prevent dry riverbeds that emit foul odors near residential areas.

Currently over 90% complete, operational, and central management buildings are constructed and undergoing finishing touches. This stands as one of the city's key flagship infrastructure projects due to its capacity to safeguard 570 km² and 6.5 million residents.