Vietnam desperate for flood prevention
Vietnam’s commercial capital Ho Chi Minh City will face catastrophic flooding over the following decades if climate control infrastructure isn’t quickly laid out, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has warned.
The swelling of the Mekong Delta will jeopardise nearly 70 per cent of Ho Chi Minh City by 2050, an ADB report has concluded, affecting mainly industrial complexes near the riverside and much of the city’s transport network.
If a flood was to occur today, about 26 per cent of the commercial hub’s 8 million population would be affected.
The global economic impact of flooding in massive commercial hubs has been distilled down to a list of cities that are “too big to flood.”
The increasing contribution to the global economy by these cities, which represent key pillars of the global economy and are mostly in Asia, would spontaneously send disruptive ripples throughout supply chains.
Ho Chi Minh City accounts for 23 per cent of Vietnam’s GDP and will only continue to attract more and more migrants into the outskirts of the city’s blossoming industrial parks and property developments. Most of these new complexes are located in lower-lying districts, including residential buildings that began going up in 2007 when Vietnam entered the World Trade Organisation.
As a result of continued migration, over the next 60 years the city’s storm-vulnerable population will grow from 1.9 million to 9.2 million, according to research by the OECD.
The city has been assisted by the World Bank to upgrade storm water and canal infrastructure, and specialists from Rotterdam have promoted a joint venture project to address climate change, but there is still a long way to go.
Besides Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok and Manila are also considered cities that are “too big to flood.”
A case in point, the extensive flooding suffered by Bangkok in 2011 caused some $4.65 billion in damages to the city, mostly to Japanese auto and electronic parts manufactures, and $45 billion throughout the country.
In Manila, annual precipitation is estimated to be increasing by up to 4 per cent, which could result in a sea-level increase of 1 inch over the next 30 years.
Seeing the damage created in Manila by the floods of 2009, which inundated 80 per cent of the metropolitan area, a sea-level increase of this much could cost 6 per cent of GDP, the ADB said.
Vietnam’s commercial capital Ho Chi Minh City will face catastrophic flooding over the following decades if climate control infrastructure isn’t quickly laid out, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has warned. The swelling of the Mekong Delta will jeopardise nearly 70 per cent of Ho Chi Minh City by 2050, an ADB report has concluded, affecting mainly industrial complexes near the riverside and much of the city’s transport network. If a flood was to occur today, about 26 per cent of the commercial hub’s 8 million population would be affected. The global economic impact of flooding in massive commercial hubs has...
Vietnam’s commercial capital Ho Chi Minh City will face catastrophic flooding over the following decades if climate control infrastructure isn’t quickly laid out, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has warned.
The swelling of the Mekong Delta will jeopardise nearly 70 per cent of Ho Chi Minh City by 2050, an ADB report has concluded, affecting mainly industrial complexes near the riverside and much of the city’s transport network.
If a flood was to occur today, about 26 per cent of the commercial hub’s 8 million population would be affected.
The global economic impact of flooding in massive commercial hubs has been distilled down to a list of cities that are “too big to flood.”
The increasing contribution to the global economy by these cities, which represent key pillars of the global economy and are mostly in Asia, would spontaneously send disruptive ripples throughout supply chains.
Ho Chi Minh City accounts for 23 per cent of Vietnam’s GDP and will only continue to attract more and more migrants into the outskirts of the city’s blossoming industrial parks and property developments. Most of these new complexes are located in lower-lying districts, including residential buildings that began going up in 2007 when Vietnam entered the World Trade Organisation.
As a result of continued migration, over the next 60 years the city’s storm-vulnerable population will grow from 1.9 million to 9.2 million, according to research by the OECD.
The city has been assisted by the World Bank to upgrade storm water and canal infrastructure, and specialists from Rotterdam have promoted a joint venture project to address climate change, but there is still a long way to go.
Besides Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok and Manila are also considered cities that are “too big to flood.”
A case in point, the extensive flooding suffered by Bangkok in 2011 caused some $4.65 billion in damages to the city, mostly to Japanese auto and electronic parts manufactures, and $45 billion throughout the country.
In Manila, annual precipitation is estimated to be increasing by up to 4 per cent, which could result in a sea-level increase of 1 inch over the next 30 years.
Seeing the damage created in Manila by the floods of 2009, which inundated 80 per cent of the metropolitan area, a sea-level increase of this much could cost 6 per cent of GDP, the ADB said.
