The flooding in the center of Thai Nguyen city after heavy rains.

Thai Nguyen City is one of the major cities in central highlands and northern mountains. The city is situated on Cau River bank. According to the statistics in 2012 of Thai Nguyen Department of statistics, Thai Nguyen is 186.31 square kilometers in area, and has the average population of about 287,910. The population density is 1,545 per one square kilometer. The city is known as an industrial and educational centre and ranks the 3rd nationwide. Besides these potentials and advantages, the infrastructure of Thai Nguyen city is weak and short, especially the drainage systems is not good enough to meet the demand of the city’s development. In recent years, it can be clearly seen that, when the rainy season comes, heavy rains bring floods to Thai Nguyen city, which causes traffic jam, damage to property, danger to residents, bad impacts to the environment, serious effects to manufacturing and activities of residents in Thai Nguyen city. The major cause of floods in Thai Nguyen is due to the drainage system which was built in over decades, has become old and narrow with the fast urbanization of the city. On the other hand, the urbanization with new residential area and the unstandadized traffic network has made drainage jam, and sewer upgrading and improving is limited.

In some major streets, especially Quang Trung  routes, running through Tan Thinh Ward and Thinh Dan Ward, Luong Ngoc Quyen Street via Thai Nguyen University of Education, Hoang Van Thu Street, passing the Thai Nguyen Electric Company and police station, the vehicles cannot move.Many cars and motorbikes that went through these routes were in deep water and needed help of traffic rescue forces.

In the early morning of July 10^th, in the area of Thai Nguyen city,there was a heavy rain with the rainfall measured to approximately 106mm, which made some main roads flooded such as Minh Cau street 0.7m deep, Hoang Van Thu street, Luong Ngoc Quyen street (near TN university of Education and Thai Nguyen central general hospital), crossover crossroad with Phan Dinh Phung 0.5 deep, etc.

At dawn of July 10^th, after heavy rain 2 hours long, lots of routes of Thai Nguyen city was flooded, this caused traffic jam. Minh Cau street, Luong Ngoc Quyen route passing TN university of Education and Thai Nguyen central general hospital; Hoang Van Thu route from Thai Nguyen police station to 19-5 pre-school were flooded the most. At present, in the area of Thai Nguyen city, there have been some projects of building the drainage system which are in process, so it makes bad drainage.

 Hoang Van Thu route (from TN police station to 19-5 Pre-school) was in deep water, which prevented vehicles from moving.

It’s more dangerous that heavy rain brought landslides at 3 points, which caused damage to residents’ property, but fortunately no one was injured. In the area behind the Monument to martyrs, heavy rain caused 15m3 soil erosion and house collapse of Mrs Nong Thi Bich Dao, 17, Hoang Van Thu ward; the talus of the Monument to martyrs that is adjacent the houses, is 30 meters long, 6 meters high; is far from the foot of the Memorial in danger of break. The area of Yen Ngua hill, a landslide filled the wall of 2-3 houses in 1, Quang Trung ward; The area of 35 hill which is opposite with Dong Bam village people’s Committee, buried Mr Pham Trung Tin family’s carpentry shop, Ao Voi hamlet…; An inspectorate of City People’s Committee checked in the floods and landslides in local area; visit and encourage families affected by soil erosion, suggest households in the eroded area to displace their possession and people out of the dangerous area; direct the the Thai Nguyen Provincial Committee of Flood and Storm Control to carry out a survey and build of dyke to ensure the security of people’s lives and property. Due to the impacts of 2^nd and 3^rd storm circulation, during the night of July 2^nd and early morning of July 3^rd, many parts of the province had prolonged heavy rains causing floods, traffic jam, and impacts on residents’ lives. According the report of the Thai Nguyen Provincial Committee of Flood and Storm Control, the highest rainfall measured up to 180mm. After prolonged rains, many inner roads of the city were under deep water; even some roads were more 50cm deep. At Hoang Van Thu Street, most of vehicle could not pass because of too deep water level while the other means that tried to go through, would be stalled. Part of Luong Ngoc Quyen road through TN university of Education was one of the deepest flooding points in the inner area of the city. The residents living both sides had to prevent the influx of water manually.

Attempting to go through deep water on Minh Cau road, the bus had to recourse to the help of rescue vehicle.

Facing up with complicated situation of the weather, the leaders of Thai Nguyen City People’s Committee had to directed police force to place the road signs to support traffic line. The rescue forces were always willing to relieve whenever heavy rains came.

The entrance exam takes place in July every year, approximately 80,000 examinees and their shuttles. This period is also the peak time of rainy season. The prolonged heavy rains bring floods and make many roads submerged in water, which causes difficulties for entrance examinees. It is the time the authorities to take part in the timely rescue such as appointing armored cars and military amphibious vehicles carrying contestants to arrive on time.

 Ministry ordered the armored amphibious vehicles transporting contestants.

The officers and soldiers of the Military Command used armored vehicles to help contestants and relatives go through heavily flooded roads to examination board.

Despite getting a lot of helps from local authorities and other departments, these are only short term solutions. To solve the problem of flooding in the center of Thai Nguyen City of Vietnam whenever the rain is heavy, we need long-term and sustainable plans.

The drainage system was built decades ago and it needs to be upgraded to match up with the rapid development of urbanization of the city, especially in the period which Thai Nguyen city is increasingly integrated.