Can Tho, the Mekong Delta's biggest city, has put forward a flood-control package worth roughly 2,000 billion VND (around USD 75-80 million), submitted to the municipal People's Council on November 3. The plan targets the streets and riverfront neighbourhoods that drown every rainy season, and it is timed to dovetail with the ongoing widening of National Highway 91.
The centrepiece is Binh Thuy Market along Bui Huu Nghia Street, a riverfront spot where water regularly stands between 0.3 and 1 metre deep when heavy rain meets high tides. The city will build a reinforced concrete tidal sluice gate 270 metres upstream from Binh Thuy Bridge, with three 20-metre spans and automated gates to hold back surges. A ship lock on the right bank keeps river traffic moving, and revetments will armour nearly 700 metres of bank.
Beyond the riverworks, six collector streets — Bui Huu Nghia, Tran Quang Dieu, Dang Thi Nhuong, Nguyen Thi Tinh, Nguyen Thi Ton and Nguyen Viet Dung — get upgrades along more than 3.2 kilometres, with new drainage pipelines tying into National Highway 91. Four more flood-prone roads in the Thoi An Dong, Cai Khe and Ninh Kieu wards — Au Co, Nguyen Chi Thanh, Nguyen Van Cu and Pham Ngu Lao — cover another five kilometres.
Construction runs from 2026 to 2028, funded by surplus money from the National Highway 91 expansion. That road project itself broke ground in September 2025: a seven-kilometre stretch widening from 12 to 37 metres, six lanes, with a 7,238 billion VND budget and a 2027 completion target.
Why should travellers care? Can Tho is the main base for exploring the Mekong Delta — the floating markets, riverside homestays and canal boat trips that draw visitors from Ho Chi Minh City. Chronic flooding regularly snarls traffic and disrupts daily life along these very corridors, several of them near the Ninh Kieu waterfront where most hotels sit. Between the highway widening (finishing 2027) and the flood works (2026-2028), expect a few years of construction disruption — but by the late 2020s, getting in and getting around the city should be noticeably smoother and drier. If your trip falls in the 2026-2028 window, pack for rain, build buffer time into transfers, and consider timing visits for the drier months while the works are underway.
The takeaway for anyone planning a Delta trip: the hassle is front-loaded. Once the sluice gates, drainage and six-lane highway are in place, Can Tho's rainy-season sog should be a far smaller part of the experience than it has been.
