Slow relocation of houses along canals

Will be completed in 3 years

After being approved by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council, the project will establish, appraise and approve the feasibility study report, and prepare for compensation (expected to relocate 1,017 houses) in 2024. In 2025, the authorities will conduct compensation, support, and resettlement, and simultaneously start and complete the project after 3 years. In addition to the north bank, Ho Chi Minh City is also studying an urban beautification project, relocation and resettlement, and improving living conditions for households living on and along the south bank of the Doi Canal. Accordingly, the 13-meter-wide, 9.7-km-long south bank protection corridor of the Doi Canal will be built with embankments and the entire area of ​​39 hectares will be renovated and expanded, with a total investment of more than VND9,000 billion. This project needs to reclaim more than 35 hectares with 5,055 households.

Many houses are built right on the canal.

This is not the first time Ho Chi Minh City has presented a plan to relocate and renovate the Doi Canal. In previous years, the city has also included in the resolution of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee a plan to relocate and renovate this canal along with many other rivers, canals and streams in the area. There were times when the government came down to take inventory and prepare compensation, but then stopped until now.

Ho Chi Minh City adjusts planning, removes obstacles for 88 social housing projects

Most recently, in 2021, the Department of Construction sent the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee a plan for urban development and renovation for the period 2021 - 2025. Due to the large scale of the project and the large number of houses that need to be relocated, the Department of Construction proposed dividing it into two phases. Phase 1 relocates 2,670 houses, with a total budget of VND 9,073 billion. Of which, the compensation for site clearance is VND 6,300 billion.

In this phase, the project will clear houses encroaching on canals, embank, dredge canals and build infrastructure such as widening alleys, connecting waterways, organizing business activities, buying and selling in the form of "on the wharf, under the boat" to promote the river landscape of the area. Phase 2 will relocate 2,385 houses and the winning investor will return to the budget the part done in phase 1. The project in this phase will extend to Pham The Hien Street after bidding and selecting the investor.

Present at the Doi Canal area, Thanh Nien reporters witnessed people living crowded in makeshift houses built on the canal.

Mr. Thanh, the owner of a household here, said that his family has lived on the Doi Canal since 1999. 12 people, both adults and children, live in a temporary house, about 40 square meters wide, so the living conditions are cramped and stuffy. Besides Mr. Thanh's house, the "riverside neighborhood" is mostly temporary houses made of wooden walls and corrugated iron roofs. All activities of the people are on the river. When we asked about the plan to relocate people to renovate the Doi Canal, Mr. Thanh said he had heard about it many times but had not seen it yet.

"The first time I heard about the relocation was 20 years ago. Now I'm married and have a child, almost 20 years old, but I haven't seen anything, I've only heard about it. If it happens, I hope the city will do it soon and have a support policy to help people settle down. Because with my house, I probably don't qualify for resettlement. The compensation is not enough to buy a new house while my family has 12 members," said Mr. Thanh.

Mr. Nhon, a resident here, shared that the city has planned to renovate the Doi canal many times but failed due to using socialization methods. However, this time he believes the city will be able to do it because it will use budget capital similar to the method used in the Nhieu Loc - Thi Nghe canal or the Tan Hoa - Lo Gom project. "Nhieu Loc - Thi Nghe canal can be quickly renovated using budget capital. Projects like this are very difficult to compensate for, and even difficult to make a profit, so the private sector is not interested because they only care about profit. The state does not aim for profit but for the common goal of helping the city develop, serving the majority, not serving the interests of a few people, so I believe the people will support and agree for the common good," Mr. Nhon said.

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Choose the option of "living with the flood"

According to Mr. Pham Binh An, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Development Studies, the city has a plan to relocate 6,500 houses in the period of 2021 - 2025 in combination with pollution treatment programs, housing programs, river embankment development projects and riverside economy . However, up to now, this plan has been very slow because the city has used the form of public-private partnership (PPP), but then the law does not allow this form, while the limited budget capital has caused the program to be "stuck".

Mr. Vuong Quoc Trung, Center for Urban and Development Research, also worries that using state budget capital will be difficult. In addition, finding suitable locations for relocation and resettlement for households is also one of the major challenges. The city no longer has much free space to build new residential areas, especially near the center. To solve this problem, Mr. Trung proposed that Ho Chi Minh City can apply the mechanism in Resolution 98, in which the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council can use the local budget to carry out compensation, support and resettlement. The land fund after compensation and site clearance is auctioned to repay the city budget.

While the budget is limited, Dr. Architect Nguyen Thiem, Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Planning and Development Association, proposed that the socialization of resources from businesses is the optimal solution. "Thinking in terms of mutual benefit and responsibility is the only way to solve the problem. If we only look at the state's benefits without seeing the benefits of investors and the people, no investors will participate, especially in the context of legal problems and extremely difficult economy," he said.

Not supporting the relocation and clearance, Ms. Chau My Anh (Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Development Studies) proposed a bold solution of "living with the flood". Because Ho Chi Minh City has more than 300 years of formation and development, the image of houses along the riverbanks and canals has become a familiar memory of the city's residents in particular and of everyone when mentioning Saigon - Gia Dinh in general. According to her, the renovation of the canal banks seems to make the city look cleaner and more serious, but is it true that the city has lost the vitality of people's lives, of memories of the city's history when boats carrying goods from all over came to trade, the cheers, the aroma as well as the smell of spoiled agricultural products mixed into this urban land.

Therefore, the solution proposed by Ms. Chau My Anh is: Instead of carrying out forced land clearance, the lesson from Thailand shows that they have planned to form floating markets to attract tourists. People here are not robbed of their living and working places by the urbanization process, but also benefit more from the state's conservation, management and tourism promotion policies. In the short term, due to lack of resources, it is necessary to focus on each project, key areas, avoiding widespread investment. At the same time, there is an assessment of each appropriate criterion on financial and human resources. Perfect specific policies and mechanisms to encourage the socialization of capital sources. Increase access to loan sources from credit institutions, international financial institutions such as ODA capital, Asian Development Bank (ADB), International Development Association (IDA)...

The more you do it, the slower it gets.

Statistics from 1993 to present show that the canal bed has been narrowed due to encroachment by households, with the total number of apartments living on and along the canal reaching more than 65,000. Up to now, after many resolutions, Ho Chi Minh City has only been able to relocate more than 38,000 houses. The relocation of houses on and along the canal has become slower over time. Specifically, in the period 1993 - 2000, 9,266 houses were relocated, in the period 2001 - 2005, 15,548 houses were relocated, in the period 2006 - 2010, 7,542 houses were relocated, in the period 2011 - 2015, 3,350 houses were relocated and in the period 2016 - 2020, 2,479 houses were relocated.

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