Lack of regulating lakes, urban areas are often flooded

Every time it rains heavily, many streets in Hai Phong are often flooded. The main reason is that the reservoirs are shallow, full, or lacking water.

Bach Dang Lake, with an area of ​​over 20 hectares, is a landscape highlight and serves to regulate rainwater in the urban area west of the city.

Only covers about 1/6 of the area

Due to being built a long time ago along with the urbanization process, Hai Phong's drainage system has now degraded, patched, with a small cross-section, and can only withstand rains under 50 mm. With rains over 50 mm, flooding occurs in many areas of Ngo Quyen, Le Chan, Hai An, Hong Bang, Hai Duong , Le Thanh Nghi wards...

In recent years, the city has often experienced heavy rains of over 100 mm, with some rains reaching over 250 mm.

In response, the city's drainage units effectively operate reservoirs and canal systems to serve drainage and minimize flooding. However, due to the silting and shallow reservoirs, limited water storage capacity, and especially the area of ​​the reservoirs being too small compared to the requirements, flooding still occurs during heavy rains.

Workers of Hai Phong Drainage One Member Co., Ltd. collect trash to clean Lam Tuong Lake.

According to the Department of Construction, the total area of ​​urban lakes in Hai Phong city is currently more than 100 hectares, accounting for a very small part compared to the urban area. The lakes are concentrated in the central inner city area and some large lakes in the western urban area such as: Bach Dang lake, Binh Minh lake, Nghe lake...

Meanwhile, according to the criteria of a type 1 urban area, the minimum area of ​​the regulating lake must ensure 5-7% of the urban construction land. Thus, the minimum area of ​​the regulating lake in Hai Phong urban area needs to be about 640 hectares. Currently, the urban area in the east of the city including Do Son and Nam Do Son wards has an area of ​​more than 42 ^km2 but does not have a regulating lake system...

At the recent supervision meeting of the City People's Council with a number of localities on urban drainage and wastewater treatment, Deputy Director of the Department of Construction Nguyen Minh Tuan said that the lack of regulating lake area limits the ability to store water and regulate surface water, making drainage and flood treatment when heavy rains combined with high tides in urban areas more difficult because it is not possible to install additional forced pumping stations. With the current drainage infrastructure and regulating lake area, rains with an intensity of over 50 mm will cause flooding in many urban areas of Hai Phong. If rains over 100 mm combined with high tides, there is a high risk of deep flooding in many places.

Allocate land to increase the area of ​​the regulating lake

Not only lacking, some regulating lakes and many open canals in urban areas of Hai Phong are shallow, depositing sludge and waste, narrowing their length, reducing their ability to store water and drain water during heavy rains. For example, in Hai An ward, the open canals used to have a total length of 24 km, but due to rapid urbanization, they have now narrowed to 18 km. The ward only has one regulating lake of 5.3 ha, so during each heavy rain, this becomes one of the city's serious flooding spots.

The above reality raises urgent requirements to prioritize investment and have specific solutions to protect and increase the area of ​​regulating lakes in urban areas. Because in addition to the role in drainage, lakes play an important role in regulating the climate and environment, creating landscapes, public spaces, and destinations for people to relax and practice sports .

A corner of An Bien lake. Photo: PHAN TUAN

According to Hai Phong Drainage One Member Co., Ltd., the implementation of renovation and dredging of the regulating lake system uses many different sources of capital. The budget for renovation and dredging of lakes is still limited. Projects to improve environmental sanitation and drainage conditions mainly come from foreign-funded and borrowed projects. For core urban areas, the limited land fund no longer allows for expansion of regulating lakes...

In the recent supervision meetings of the City People's Council on drainage and wastewater treatment in some wards, the localities were very interested and proposed that the city allocate more investment resources for renovating, dredging, protecting against filling, encroachment and narrowing of existing regulating lakes to improve water storage capacity. This is an urgent and long-term task, directly related to people's lives and urban development in Hai Phong.

In the construction of the new Hai Phong City Master Plan being implemented, it is necessary to prioritize land area for drainage works, including increasing the area of ​​regulating lakes to increase the capacity to store and regulate surface water, reducing flooding in urban areas.

Vice Chairman of Gia Vien Ward People's Committee Le Chuong proposed that for housing projects and new urban areas, the land area for building parks, flower gardens, and trees can be replaced by water surface area according to regulations. In addition, research should be done to build regulating lakes in areas expected to develop and arrange urban drainage pumping stations along the main river... Thereby, increasing drainage capacity and responding to urban flooding in Hai Phong.

MAGLANCANNA

Source: https://baohaiphong.vn/thieu-ho-dieu-hoa-do-thi-thuong-xuyen-ngap-ung-522851.html