Ho Chi Minh City is facing increasingly severe flooding, prompting city leaders to adopt a “sponge city” model that mixes green spaces with traditional drainage to cope with climate change and rapid urban growth.

Vice Chairman Truong Minh Huy Vu said four forces are making floods worse: rain that exceeds the design capacity of drains, higher tides and rising sea levels, land sinking about two centimetres a year, and rapid building that blocks canals.

These four factors have weakened the performance of the city’s existing dikes, drains, reservoirs, canals and other waterways, leaving many neighbourhoods vulnerable during heavy storms.

To counter the problem, the city is completing a flood‑control project worth around VND10 trillion (about $380 million) this year. Over the past five years, roughly 100 projects have been built, targeting nearly 50 flood‑prone sites.

Ho Chi Minh City is also working with the Netherlands, a nation experienced in water management, to explore green dikes and sponge‑city concepts that could protect low‑lying districts from future inundation.

The long‑term plan combines “gray” infrastructure such as drains and pumping stations with “green” solutions like retention ponds, water parks and ecological parks. At the same time, the city will digitise its drainage network to monitor water levels in real time, creating a smarter, more adaptable system.

By addressing extreme rain, sea‑level rise, land subsidence and unchecked urbanisation together, the city hopes to turn flooding from a recurring disaster into a manageable part of urban life.