Ho Chi Minh City's canals back from the dead
HO CHI MINH CITY - The Lunar New Year is always met with
celebrations in Vietnam, but residents of this southern city should have
something more to be happy about in the Year of the Water Horse,
which started on Tuesday. Not only have the authorities here prepared
various festivities to mark the event, they are holding them on the banks
of Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe canal, which they have managed to bring back to
life. They also say this is just the beginning of the fight to win back the
city's waterways.
Ho Chi Minh City's extensive waterways network, which runs a total of
1,500 kilometers, was once a source of pride for the former capital (as
Saigon) of South Vietnam. The waterways not only linked the city with
the Mekong Delta and other surrounding provinces, but also play an
important role in servicing the city's sewage and drainage infrastructure.
But as the city's population grew, the rivers and canals of Ho Chi Minh
City went through rapid degradation. Choked with refuse and sometimes
even clogged with shanties in their shallower portions, the city's
waterways either turned gray or black and emitted overwhelming fetid
odors. They also shrank, no longer flowed with ease and became prone
to overflowing.
Tau Hu canal, for instance, used to measure 50 meters wide and 11
meters deep, and was a popular avenue for vessels that carried some
350,000 tonnes of cargo a year. Now it is only about 20 meters wide
and two meters deep. In District 8, meanwhile, parts of the once
expansive waterway system have been "reclaimed" by some companies
allowed to set up shop in the area. By filling the portion of canal near
their factories with waste and soil, Cho Lon Plastics company has
"reclaimed" 1,277 square meters, Tuan Nha Garments 445 square
meters, and Thanh Loi Enterprise 221 square meters.
Not surprisingly, some areas of the city have become flood-prone even
during the dry season. City authorities have tried to remedy the situation
by repairing and upgrading some of the drainage systems, as well as
building new ones. They also dredged a few of the major canals. But the
problem of flooding persisted while the remaining waterways continued
to deteriorate.
Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe canal was considered the worst of the lot. Still,
when the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee decided to implement a
US$700 million "clean the waterways" program two years ago, it chose
to Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe as the pilot project, just to prove perhaps that
the task was not impossible. Some $116.6 million was spent cleaning up
the canal, improving infrastructure around it and repairing drainage and
water treatment systems. Today, the canal is flowing once more, the stink
is gone and the area alongside the waterway has been transformed into a
greenbelt.
Officials like to say that the 68,000 people who used to live along the
Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe canal are now rid of a squalid, shantytown lifestyle.
Indeed, thousands have been relocated to better homes and those who
are still living near the waterway now have front doors that open to a
new street. One of the components of the waterways cleanup program in
this city actually covers the relocation of squatters living in targeted
waterway areas. According to the plan laid out in 2000, seven new
residential areas would be built to accommodate 1,444 apartments and
635 housing foundations established to help in the resettlement of eligible
families.
So far, the city's authorities are pleased with what has been
accomplished with the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe canal. They know, however,
that the battle to clean up Ho Chi Minh City's waterways network still
has a very long way to go. Among their priorities these days is how to
keep factories from flushing their wastes into the waterways and
residents from throwing refuse into the rivers and canals. Public works
personnel say an average of 450 tonnes of trash is dumped daily into the
70km inner-city stretch of the canal system alone.
Authorities are also trying to keep people from squatting on or near the
waterways. Nguyen Van Vang of the city's Department of Public Works
confesses, "It's seems like a game of hide and seek. We have just
cleared some slums there, and they appear again at other places beside
other waterways."
In truth, there has been much grumbling among those forced to relocate.
Nguyen Van Mot, for example, may have been able to get an apartment
for his family, but his grumpy countenance makes it is clear that he would
have preferred to stay put in his waterway home. Former waterway
squatter Huynh Thi Kim was also allocated a fifth-floor apartment, but
the 45-year-old street vendor found the location of her new home too
inconvenient. She thus sold the apartment and now rents a small house
near her place of work. Some city personnel admit that it may not be
long until she decides to save rent money and just turn to squatting once
more, as others have already done.
Observers say other key issues have yet to be adequately addressed,
such as the illegal reclamation being done by factories. They also say
people's trash disposal habits remain dismal, as does the city's waste
management system.
By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam - Inter Press Service - February 13, 2002.
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