We all need an answer to resolve flooding situation

Now the worst of the weather has gone for this winter, maybe, and the Severn looks calm and beautiful, it’s easy to forget the floods, unless you’re one of those unlucky people who are still dealing with the aftermath.

Over the last few months there have been lots of reports and suggestions about what to do.

If you are a government employee, and that includes the Environment Agency (EA), you will be working flat out to promote and build barriers along the Severn; those hideous creations, which are not reliable most of the time, but hide the beautiful river from people who live and work beside it, to say nothing of the visitors who come to see it.

King Canute could have told the EA, Defra, Natural England and The Wildlife Trust et al (who believe they are doing their best against the forces of nature) that there is nothing they can do.

That’s not very reassuring, is it, because they aren’t coping at the moment, whilst admitting that things are going to get worse due to climate change, something else they have no control over. So to mitigate against this inability to reverse the situation, they turn to farmers whom they are able to bully and blame.

This is really about flood management, but I feel Ukraine should be mentioned here, as evidence of how woefully inadequate our food security is on these small islands.

To curtail food production in the name of flood management and saving the planet has been brought into the spotlight these last weeks. Who knew we were so dependent on Russia and Ukraine for not only oil and gas, but wheat and sunflower oil? Of course “they” knew, but it wasn’t politic to tell us how fragile our food supplies are, so we have been happily going on with our lives, believing Ukraine’s war wasn’t going to have any long term impact on us.

Back to managing the Severn. They “think that dams; diversion canals; floodplains and groundwater replenishment; river defences, e.g. levees; bunds; reservoirs; weirs; coastal defences, groynes; sea walls; revetments; gabions; retention ponds; moveable gates and barriers”, are the answer.

To reduce the risk, the EA according to their websites, “carries out maintenance work: on or near main rivers; to main rivers and to sea defences, which includes grass cutting and weed control; removing obstructions from rivers; repairing and operating sluice gates and pumping stations”.

In the past, when we had to manage flood areas on the farm, we’d either get a “man and his machine” or if it was just a ditch, then a man (or a woman) with a spade. One of my favourite jobs, and if done at the right time, very effective and not invasive.

I read a report recently saying, that for big rivers, the estuaries need to be cleared first, allowing the excess water to go into the sea. If this isn’t done, the water backs up in the river. I am a fan of dredging, mainly because I believe it’s not so invasive or devastating as flooding.

Of course I’m no expert, but from experience, I’d say controlled dredging clears space for the water to run more easily, until there is a free flow (down from Wales, in our case), avoiding raging water from taking all before it. I saw a roadside ditch recently that had been cleared and on the side there was mud, stones, branches and debris like plastic bags and a shopping trolley. Imagine these things in rivers that are not managed, and, if left for floods to clear, the impact they would have. Not to mention that whilst they are in the river, they’re impeding the flow.

Boring but mind-numbing figures, for barriers and their maintenance. Such as £5.2 billion and £250 million are pledged over the next six years.

We, that is the Government aka the Environment Agency will spend £250 million more this year than they did last year, but they “can stop maintaining and operating these defences if the cost is judged to outweigh the benefits”. Pity the people and businesses along the river. Planning permission has been given for 866 houses, against the EA’s advice, and a farmer has been fined for dredging and clearing his river bank. Does the right hand know what the left is doing?

So to solve the problems, caused by methane etc from too many animals, farmers must reduce their stock and replace them with trees and wild flower meadows.

They must also allow flooding on their fields, and have beavers in their rivers to dam them to increase these water meadows and re-wilding.

Recently the Star reported that Rhys McCarthy who is flood risk manager for the EA, said they are inspecting their flood defences to work out essential repairs to make sure they are in good working order. The phrase “when you’re in a hole stop digging” comes to mind, because it doesn’t seem that alternative plans are being considered any time soon.