Hanoi municipal officials expressed concern about the city's drainagecapacity following a draft plan released on July 20 to cope withpotential flooding during the city's millennium celebrations in October.
"All-out efforts would be made to drain water intothe To Lich and Nhue rivers to minimise water levels if a heavydownpour occurred during Hanoi 's 1,000th anniversary in October,"said the city People's Committee Chairman Nguyen The Thao.
Even taking into account the anti-flooding measures, Thao admitted "They are merely temporary measures."
Other solutions for the city's short term water drainage problems wereneeded, the chairman said, while in the long-term additional andpermanent solutions needed to be developed.
According to Irrigation Department Deputy General Director Nguyen XuanDieu, flood prevention measures are in a complete shambles despite theonset of the monsoon season and the rapidly approaching citycelebrations.
Dieu warned of immeasurable consequences when repeatedly pumping large volumes of water outside the city's dike system.
Many irrigation experts said it was essential to install temporarypumping stations to drain off water and dredge rivers to encourage waterflows.
But Thao also raised concerns regarding thecity's pumping stations, as they currently discharge water primarilyinto the To Lich and Nhue rivers which run through the capital and wouldalready be inundated. Only the Yen So pumping station drained off waterto the Red River while the raising of the Yen So pumping station'scapacity to 90cu.m of water per second from a current 45cu.m would onlybe finished by the end of August, Thao pointed out.
Although phase 1 of the Hanoi Drainage for Environmental Improvementproject was completed five years ago the drainage capacity in thecapital city remains at only 172mm per two days.
Thesecond phase of the project will only be finished by 2013 and wouldraise the current drainage capacity to 310mm over two days.
A latest downpour hitting Hanoi recently flooded streets andblocked traffic for many hours because the 130mm rainfall was condensedinto three hours and far exceeded the city's limited drainage capacity./.
"All-out efforts would be made to drain water intothe To Lich and Nhue rivers to minimise water levels if a heavydownpour occurred during Hanoi 's 1,000th anniversary in October,"said the city People's Committee Chairman Nguyen The Thao.
Even taking into account the anti-flooding measures, Thao admitted "They are merely temporary measures."
Other solutions for the city's short term water drainage problems wereneeded, the chairman said, while in the long-term additional andpermanent solutions needed to be developed.
According to Irrigation Department Deputy General Director Nguyen XuanDieu, flood prevention measures are in a complete shambles despite theonset of the monsoon season and the rapidly approaching citycelebrations.
Dieu warned of immeasurable consequences when repeatedly pumping large volumes of water outside the city's dike system.
Many irrigation experts said it was essential to install temporarypumping stations to drain off water and dredge rivers to encourage waterflows.
But Thao also raised concerns regarding thecity's pumping stations, as they currently discharge water primarilyinto the To Lich and Nhue rivers which run through the capital and wouldalready be inundated. Only the Yen So pumping station drained off waterto the Red River while the raising of the Yen So pumping station'scapacity to 90cu.m of water per second from a current 45cu.m would onlybe finished by the end of August, Thao pointed out.
Although phase 1 of the Hanoi Drainage for Environmental Improvementproject was completed five years ago the drainage capacity in thecapital city remains at only 172mm per two days.
Thesecond phase of the project will only be finished by 2013 and wouldraise the current drainage capacity to 310mm over two days.
A latest downpour hitting Hanoi recently flooded streets andblocked traffic for many hours because the 130mm rainfall was condensedinto three hours and far exceeded the city's limited drainage capacity./.
