Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City is learning to live with floods but climate change has raised the stakes

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, a city already familiar with flooding, faces heightened risks due to climate change. On September 27, forecasters warned of potential flood risks from high tides and heavy rain. When the predicted conditions arrived on September 30, the Saigon River and smaller waterways overflowed onto city streets. Residents, accustomed to the water, went about their daily lives.

Some raised their homes' floors, while others donned ponchos and rode through the water, buying goods and returning to their flooded surroundings. Ho Chi Minh City, one of the world's most vulnerable cities to climate change, confronts growing challenges. Benjamin Horton, a professor of earth science at City University of Hong Kong, explained that climate change exacerbates flood risks by interacting with rapid urbanization and subsidence.

The city, with nearly half its land below 1 meter above sea level, has an outdated drainage system built during French colonial times. Groundwater extraction has exacerbated the issue, causing certain areas to sink. The city's authorities aim to address 159 flood hotspots by 2030 through a $13 billion plan, including upgrades to drainage systems, green spaces, and flood-control infrastructure.

However, climate change is intensifying the frequency and severity of floods, making them deeper and longer-lasting. In neighboring Thailand, heavy rains have affected over 2.6 million people and caused at least 19 deaths since mid-September. Nguyen Thi Nhua, a vendor in the city, continues to operate despite the floods, selling snacks from her sidewalk stall for 12 years.

Climate change is reshaping the city's flood risks, making them more frequent and severe, even as residents adapt to the disruptions.