Saigon canal bank keeps subsiding after embankment erosion

The Department of Transport said Thursday that a section of 200m along the canal has subsided by 1.78 cm per day on average and slipped towards the water by 2 cm per day.

The data was collected over nine days until Wednesday by city-based Portcoast Consultant Corporation.

The company said the situation will continue to last, threatening families living along the bank.

Late last month, a 120-meter-long embankment section on the right bank of Thanh Da Canal, part of the Saigon River system, eroded away. Since then, the canal’s bank has kept subsiding.

In order to accurately assess the cause and remedy, the department said it needs more field studies and collect more data on topography, geology, and hydrology.

Bui Hoa An, the department’s deputy director, said the embankment section that was eroded was built in 2009 and by then, there were no houses in the area.

It was regulated back then that houses must be built 10m away from the embankment but these days, houses have been built just 3.5 m from the embankment, resulting in high load capacity for the bank.

In the meantime, 13 families have been relocated out of the eroded areas.

Ho Chi Minh City launched a project to build an anti-erosion embankment along Thanh Da Canal in 2006.

The project was divided into four sections, costing VND110 billion (US$4.65 million), VND280 billion, VND281 billion, and VND420 billion of the state budget each.

Until now, only one section has been completed, one is left half-finished and work has yet to start on the remaining two. Difficulties in clearing site for the project have been cited as the main reason.