When will Dien Bien City stop experiencing the situation of "roads turning into rivers" every time it rains heavily?

Vo Nguyen Giap Street was flooded on the night of August 2, making traffic very difficult.

Heavy rain is flooding

With a total investment of 200 billion VND, the Project to Improve and Upgrade the Infrastructure of Vo Nguyen Giap Street was completed and put into use in 2020. The project includes technical infrastructure works according to urban road standards in accordance with the planning of Dien Bien Phu City and the orientation of upgrading to a type II urban area. In particular, the drainage system was newly built to replace the old damaged box culvert system, with 4 large connection points, more than 110 manholes on a total length of about 3.9 km to drain water into the Nam Rom River.

The concern is that after the renovation, upgrading and putting into use, the local flooding situation on the approximately 500m long road from the roundabout in the city center to the intersection at the beginning of Truong Chinh Street has not been improved. Most recently, the heavy rain that occurred on the night of August 2nd turned the entire road into a river, with the flooded area nearly 1 meter deep. Floodwaters flooded many businesses and traders on both sides of the road, causing wetness and damage to goods. Many motorbikes and cars were submerged in water, causing their engines to stall, requiring rescue to be called to move the vehicles out of the flooded area.

The system of water intake gates from the road surface to the drainage system on Vo Nguyen Giap Street is considered not suitable for practice.

Worried that the flooding will continue, causing difficulties for life and business, Mr. Tran Van Diep, Tan Thanh ward shared: My family has 2 clothing stores on this road. During the rain on August 2, both stores were flooded with about 50cm of water, but my family only had time to clean up at one store, the other store had a lot of goods soaked, causing significant damage. I really hope the government will rebuild the drainage system to help people suffer less.

Not only Vo Nguyen Giap Street, many other streets in the city such as Truong Chinh and Hoang Van Thai are often flooded when there is heavy rain. The Provincial Stadium area is one of the areas that is often heavily flooded, with some areas being 0.5 - 0.8 meters deep. Meanwhile, the road section adjacent to the Provincial Stadium in Group 8, Muong Thanh Ward, although the drainage system has been dredged, renovated and upgraded not long ago. This is part of the Project to Dredge, Renovate and Upgrade the D3 Drainage System (section from the Provincial Stadium to Group 2, Muong Thanh Ward) invested by the People's Committee of Muong Thanh Ward, with a capital of 9 billion VND.

The project to handle local flooding from Km74 to Km75+150 on National Highway 279 is under construction.

What is the cause?

Although they are all too familiar with the scene of flooding when it rains, what many people are wondering is where the effectiveness of the city's flood prevention projects is when just one rain can turn people's lives upside down?

After many major floods, the People's Committee of Dien Bien Phu City has requested relevant units to review the entire drainage system to find the cause. Mr. Do Trung Kien, Deputy Head of the Urban Management Department of Dien Bien Phu City, said: Through the review, it is shown that the drainage problem on many roads does not meet the requirements, especially when dealing with sudden increases in rainfall. On Vo Nguyen Giap Street, the water intake system from the road surface to the drainage system is not suitable for design and practical requirements. In addition, because the domestic wastewater system of some streets has not been invested in for separate collection, it is still used together with the stormwater drainage system, causing a foul odor, so people have blocked the drainage holes to avoid the odor. This causes the drainage system to not function as expected.

The flooding situation in the Provincial Stadium area is mainly due to the fact that this is a low-lying area, while the drainage system is still inadequate and the roads: Sung Phai Sinh, Truong Chinh, Hoang Van Thai have degraded, so when it rains heavily, the water on the above roads cannot drain in time and all flows into this area, leading to the inability to drain in time.

Answering the question of why the drainage system in this area has just been upgraded, Mr. Nguyen Van Quy, Vice Chairman of Muong Thanh Ward People's Committee, explained: Because the new drainage system and the old drainage system leading water to D3 canal are not synchronized, the connection to the underground drainage system is not seamless, creating a "bottleneck". Normally, the above drainage system still operates at the designed frequency, but if the amount of rainwater from the roads around this area all flows here, it will lead to overload, the water cannot drain in time, causing local flooding.

Water flooded into businesses on Vo Nguyen Giap Street during the rain on August 2. ( *Photo provided by local residents)*

What is the solution to the problem of flood prevention?

Many solutions to solve the flooding situation have been focused on by Dien Bien Phu city, such as: improving the drainage system; operating, maintaining, dredging all kinds of sewers, repairing manholes... However, in many areas, the flooding situation has not improved. In addition to asking residential groups to propagate to people to remove covers at manholes and drainage gates, the city is currently continuing to research and deploy a number of urgent projects to solve the flooding situation.

The project to handle local flooding from Km74 to Km75+150 of National Highway 279, the section passing through Dien Bien Phu city, invested by Road Management Area I under the Vietnam Road Administration, with a total investment of 30 billion VND, has been implemented to overcome the frequent flooding situation on this road section. Accordingly, to ensure drainage capacity, a longitudinal drainage system running under the road on both sides and a system of sewers and horizontal water intakes in the shape of fish bones will be built to collect rainwater and drain it into the Nam Rom River. The project is expected to be completed in 2023.

In the Provincial Stadium area, to prevent overloading of the drainage system in this area, the People's Council of Dien Bien Phu City issued Resolution No. 08/NQ-HDND approving the adjustment of the investment policy of the Project on Dredging Drainage Gutters and Paving Sidewalks, Urban Renovating Truong Chinh Street and Hoang Van Thai Street, with a total investment of 38 billion VND. One of the important items of the project is to renew the drainage box gutters on both sides of the road, manholes and water intakes along the entire route. The project is expected to start construction in 2024, and after completion and put into use, it will improve the drainage efficiency of the above two routes.

The urgent need to deal with the drainage system of Dien Bien Phu city is to ensure the urban beauty and people's lives. The city's immediate feasible solution is to assign people to open manhole covers and release water whenever it rains heavily. As for the people, while continuing to wait and hope for the flood prevention effectiveness of ongoing and future projects, this rainy season they must still be ready to deal with the situation of "roads turning into rivers".

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