Mass HCM City relocations due to land erosion

HCM City (VNA) - HCM City will relocate 1,210 households in areas prone to land erosion by rivers and canals under a larger resettlement plan that will be carried out until 2020.

Most of the families will move to the outlying districts of Thu Duc, Nha Be, Can Gio and Binh Chanh.

HCM City has about 50 eroded areas, with 30 of them considered dangerous enough to threaten property and public safety, according to the city’s Inland Waterway Authority.

Infrastructure in resettlement residential areas will be built for the households in Nha Be District.

The city will build a resettlement residential area in Can Gio District to relocate households in Can Gio’s Thanh An Island Commune.

In Can Gio, relocation of 388 households will occur in Binh Khanh, Ly Nhon, Long Hoa, An Thoi Đông and Tam Thon Hiep communes and Can Thanh Town.

Of the 1,210 households in the city, 44 households in high-risk erosion-prone areas in Thu Duc’s Linh Dong, Hiep Binh Chanh and Hiep Binh Phuoc wards will also be relocated.

The relocation projects for erosion-prone households will cost a total of more than 500 billion VND (22.7 million USD).

Last year, the city recorded 13 erosion cases, mostly in Nha Be, Can Gio and Thu Duc districts and District 2, causing property damage worth billions of dong, according to the city’s Department of Transport.

The HCM City People’s Committee has also urged the management board of Can Gio Protection Forest to speed up the process of planting and protecting forests in coastal areas.

The city’s People’s Committee has approved four canal embankment projects in Thu Duc and Cu Chi districts that will help prevent erosion.-VNA