Adapting to natural disasters 'beyond the law' - Part 2: Da Nang urgently fights flooding and landslides

Article 2: Da Nang urgently fights flooding and landslides

Photo caption — The construction unit is constructing the last foundation pillar on the bridge over the Truong Giang River, passing through Tam Anh commune, Da Nang city. Photo: Doan Huu Trung/VNA

More than 100 thousand houses were surrounded by water, dozens of communes and wards were submerged in floodwaters, many key traffic routes and coastlines were eroded..., total damage amounted to thousands of billions of VND. In the context of increasingly extreme natural disasters, the problem of flood prevention and landslide prevention requires more fundamental, synchronous and long-term solutions than ever.

Correct diagnosis and treatment

After many years of researching and proposing solutions to prevent flooding in urban areas, Mr. Bui Ngoc Anh, former Chairman of Tam Ky City People's Committee, now Secretary of Quang Phu Ward, Da Nang City, analyzed: Tam Ky City (old), now Tam Ky, Quang Phu, Huong Tra and Ban Thach wards, has 3 rivers flowing through it, namely Ban Thach River, Tam Ky River and Truong Giang River.

These three rivers provide water for daily life and production of the community but are also three sources of water causing floods in this land. When the water level of Ban Thach River rises about 2.5m, the city drainage system cannot drain into Ban Thach River at the outlets on Ban Thach dike and Bach Dang street, causing flooding in low-lying areas throughout the city.

On the other hand, the rainfall in the Thang Binh and Phu Ninh areas flows into the Ban Thach, Ky Phu, and Tam Ky rivers, with very large flows and strong currents. From the city center, the Ban Thach River flows into the Ky Phu River, flows to the Tam Ky River to the An Hoa estuary, Nui Thanh commune, with a length of about 25 km and almost no slope, the flow is bottlenecked through the bridges so it drains very slowly, which is one of the main causes of flooding in urban areas.

According to Secretary of Quang Phu Ward Bui Ngoc Anh, in the area there are many residential areas invested in nearly 30 years ago, the infrastructure is degraded, the drainage flow is not specifically calculated, leaving low-lying areas in the urban area that have not been upgraded and completed, which is also the reason for local flooding in many places. The lack of synchronization in construction height management leads to the formation of local low-lying areas, especially in existing urban areas compared to newly upgraded roads or newly formed urban areas.

To prevent urban flooding, many scientific projects have been implemented. Associate Professor - Doctor Nguyen Chi Cong (University of Technology - Danang University) shared that early flood control and diverting foreign floods from Phu Ninh and Thang Binh to prevent them from flowing into Tam Ky city play an important and decisive role in reducing urban flooding.

Scientists from Danang University proposed three drainage solutions for the city; the most urgent of which is to cut off the water source from the West flowing into the city. Invest in building underground sewers, upgrade drainage works, dredge and clear the flow of rivers and add the function of regulating water from reservoirs to contribute to drainage during heavy rains and floods.

According to scientists, to prevent flooding in Da Nang city, it is necessary to have an objective view, scientifically based assessment, and propose basic solutions. The drainage system must be scientifically planned and tightly managed. Build a flood map for the entire city, avoid fragmented and unsynchronized investment, raise the flood level where it is flooded, leading to the transfer of flooding from one place to another, and reserve large land funds to organize flood drainage space for rivers. For urban infrastructure investment projects, industrial parks, residential areas, and urban areas, it is necessary to carefully assess environmental impacts, have solutions to dredge and clear the flow of rivers, and upgrade and renovate the inner-city drainage system.

Most recently, on October 15, in Huong Tra ward, the Quang Nam Construction Investment Project Management Board started the construction of the anti-erosion embankment combined with the scenic road along the Tam Ky river and the resettlement area. This is an area that is often heavily affected by large floods causing serious landslides, directly threatening the lives, property and productive land of the people.

With an investment capital of nearly 95 billion VND, when put into use at the end of 2026, the anti-erosion embankment combined with the scenic road along the Tam Ky river and the resettlement area is an urgent requirement, meeting the legitimate aspirations of the people, while contributing significantly to natural disaster prevention, protecting urban infrastructure and sustainable ecological environment. This is a specific action in the strategy of sustainable urban development, adapting to climate change, contributing to building Da Nang city greener, safer and more prosperous, bringing practical benefits to the community.

Fundamental and practical solutions

Standing Member of the Civil Defense Command, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Da Nang City Truong Xuan Ty said that in recent years, natural disasters in the country in general and in Da Nang City in particular have occurred increasingly fiercely and extremely with many types of natural disasters such as storms, tropical depressions, causing heavy rains and floods lasting for many days leading to flooding, landslides, riverbank and coastal landslides occurring in many localities in the city.

The major storms and floods in October and November 2025 alone caused flooding and landslides everywhere, from coastal plains, urban areas to mountainous areas; mainly in the former Quang Nam province. Storms and floods flooded more than 100,000 houses, and deeply flooded more than 40 communes and wards out of 94 communes, wards and special zones of Da Nang city. Dozens of traffic routes were severely eroded, causing traffic jams for many days.

As one of the most beautiful beaches in Asia, but before storm No. 12 (late October 2025), high tides and high waves continuously hit the mainland, continuing to cause severe erosion in the An Bang coastal area in Tan Thanh quarter, Hoi An Tay ward with a length of more than 200 meters, dozens of meters deep inland, directly threatening the safety of residential areas and tourism infrastructure inside. Da Nang City has urgently deployed construction measures to temporarily prevent serious erosion on the coast, protect resources and safety for the community.

To protect the coast and limit flooding for Hoi An ancient town, Associate Professor - Doctor Mai Van Cong, Senior Lecturer at the University of Water Resources, lecturer at Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, proposed that in the strategy for developing coastal cities, the particularly important issue is to comply with the principle of integrated coastal management in the region. To sustainably restore Hoi An's coast, it is necessary to directly intervene in the root cause of the erosion problem. That is the imbalance of mud and sand along the shore under the impact of coastal currents created by wave fields. On the other hand, it is necessary to create a new mud and sand balance, thereby accreting and re-creating a stable balance for the beach, preventing the erosion of Hoi An's coast over the past many years.

Realizing the proposals of scientists, in recent years, many urgent protection projects for Hoi An coastline have been implemented by Da Nang city. In 2025, with a total investment of 42 million Euros, equivalent to more than 982 billion VND, construction units are speeding up the construction of a nearly 2.2 km long wave-reducing underground dike, located about 250m from the shore, building many welding mines, using dredged sand to create and nourish beaches, creating sediment balance, reducing the risk of erosion for more than 3 km of Hoi An coastline during the rainy and stormy season. The project is expected to be completed and put into use in 2026, with a total of about 7 km of Hoi An coastline protected.

In Tam Ky urban area, now belonging to 4 wards of Tam Ky, Quang Phu, Huong Tra, and Ban Thach, Director of the Project Management Board for Investment and Construction of Traffic Works of Quang Nam Province Nguyen Van Thuong said that the Da Nang City Adaptive Integrated Development Project includes the main items: Dredging of Truong Giang River, Flood Drainage Complex and 7 solid bridges across Truong Giang River, with a total investment of over 2,722 billion VND. When completed in 2031, the project is expected to thoroughly solve the problem of urban flooding in a large area of communes and wards of Duy Nghia, Thang An, Thang Truong, Tam Xuan, Tam Anh, Tam Hai, Ban Thach, Quang Phu, Huong Tra, Tam Ky, Da Nang City.

The Resolution of the 1st Congress of the Da Nang City Party Committee, term 2025-2030, sets the goal of turning the city into a growth pole of Vietnam by 2030. To achieve this goal, Da Nang City will continue to accelerate the development speed and complete the modern and synchronous economic-social infrastructure system, becoming a driving force for development of the Central Coast region and the whole country.

To realize this aspiration, "catching" the right disease to have a fundamental, sustainable solution that is suitable to practical conditions in the effort to prevent flooding in urban areas and improve the community's ability to adapt to climate change is an urgent issue not only in Da Nang but also for coastal cities.

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