This time last year the
With the hosepipe ban making parts of the countryside look like the Serengeti, and everything from the car-wash to the putting green demonised as the epitome of wastefulness, hanging onto water was our number one priority. Twelve months on, with large areas of the
And just as last year the finger of blame was pointed at the water companies and their leaky reservoirs, this summer’s floods have sparked the inevitable hunt for a scapegoat – with everyone from the government to the Environment Agency being lambasted for not reacting quickly enough to the Met Office’s warnings.
This reaction is understandable. If all of your material possessions have effectively been washed away, it’s inevitable that you’re going to want to hold someone accountable. But, to be fair to the authorities, apart from a few obvious practical measures that perhaps weren’t taken rapidly enough – such as moving portable flood barriers into position – it’s difficult to see what could be done that isn’t being done now.
However, according to engineers, scientists and experts from the water industry, there’s plenty that can be done to reduce the impact of similarly extreme wet weather in the future.
It seems that what’s really required is a more joined up approach to our fluctuating rainfall; one that holds back the flow of flood waters when it’s wet and stores excess water to help us in times of drought. Though there’s no single panacea. One particularly effective way of doing this in developed areas could be through the use of sustainable urban drainage systems, or SUDS. This is an approach to managing rainfall in urban areas that replicates natural drainage methods. Rather than using underground pipe systems to prevent flooding by removing water as quickly as possible, SUDS uses a range of systems, such as porous pavements, reservoirs, and open pipes to both manage runoff flowrates and reduce the impact of urbanisation on flooding in other areas.
Whatever the solution, with the government suggesting this week that some of the three million more anticipated new homes may be constructed on flood plains, a fundamental rethink over flood defences is clearly essential.
Jon Excell, Features Editor
Extreme weather oscillations may become the norm in England, Europe and most of the world as the climate changes. More robust systems of storm water management will be needed around the world to collect water in times of excess to provide water in dry times and limit flood drainage.
And that doesn’t mean that both industrial processes and consumers won’t have to find more efficient ways to use water. In-house recycling or reuse should be looked at too.
Why don’t we go back to roof drainage into soakaways as it used to be? It relieves the excess water from surface drains AND it brings up the water table which is responsible for our water supply.
What a pleasant surprise to read an article whose main aim is not to point the finger of blame at anyone. I completely agree that future planning and development of new improved drainage systems is the way forward. Also the design of buildings situated in potential flood areas needs to be considered. Overseas buildings susceptible to flood damage are constructed on ‘stilts’. This will not stop the flood problem but will certainly vastly reduce internal damage due to flooding.
I agree with your article completely. We just do not seem to be able to manage the fact that one year we have too little water and the next too much. I don’t understand why, when as now with the floods, we do not have the infrastructure to be able to hive off the flood water into vast storage areas for times of drought.
It is all very well talking about new ways of dealing with the dispersal of heavy rainfall but we are not capable of maintaining the methods we do have. My point is that where I live, it has been years since I’ve seen the road drains cleaned out. Hence, when it rains heavily the water has nowhere to drain away because the soakaways are full of old leaves and dirt. Is this just another cutback?
In my local town the older buildings in a riverside estate were built raised to avoid being flooded. In recent years many of the larger gardens have been sold off and extra properties built in between the old ones. These new buildings have been built conventionally, i.e. not raised and now flood. If we are to build in flood areas all that’s needed is a bit of common sense.