Agency presents early findings of summer floods review
In light of the recent surface water flooding faced by residents across the country, such as in Hull, the Environment Agency has highlighted the need for clarity of responsibility and a strategic overview of all inland flood risk, and improved coordination and action on management of risk from all sources of flood.
This is one of the early findings to come out of the Environment Agency’s work on reviewing the summer 2007 floods.
Following a meeting today of the Environment Agency Board, Chairman Sir John Harman said responsibility for surface water drainage was split between many different authorities and not enough attention had been given to managing urban flooding in a coordinated way.
“Many people were flooded by rivers during June and July, but five times as many homes and businesses in place like Hull were flooded by overflowing drains and sewers as were affected by river flooding. These areas were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of rainfall,” he said.
“Urban flooding is particularly challenging to manage partly because several different organisations are responsible for different aspects of the problem.
“As the Hull Interim Report outlined, there needs to be one single national body to have responsibility for setting a strategic framework to understand, mitigate and manage urban flood risk.”
Sir John Harman said the national role could involve ensuring effective frameworks, tools and advice for surface water management and water company plans for sewerage and drainage were prepared to an acceptable standard. But local authorities would be the lead authority for the local coordination of drainage and surface water issues, working with their water companies, developers and the Environment Agency.
“However, it would not be workable to have one national organisation wholly responsible for everything to do with flooding because of the huge range of activities involved before, during and after a flood – like flood forecasting, flood defences, public safety and evacuation, emergency response, and social and economic support and clean-up in the aftermath of floods.
“What is important is that each organisation understands its role and when responding to an emergency, as we saw during the recent floods, there is effective coordination between everyone concerned. This can be achieved without having an expensive and unwieldy structural solution.”
The Board agreed that other issues highlighted so far in the review of the summer 2007 floods needed to be taken forward, including:
- Strengthening the relevant parts of the building regulations to include measures for flood resistance (preventing water entering) and resilience (reducing damage and aiding recovery when water does enter)
- Encouraging the insurance industry to use conditions or reduce premiums for those who install resistance and resilience measures
- Reviewing and increasing funding for flood defences
- Amending the draft Climate Change Bill to lay a duty on critical infrastructure operators and providers of critical public services to take account of the needs of adapting to climate change.
“These issues have been around for some time. They need to be tackled to improve flood risk management outcomes for people and the environment in the face of climate change,” Sir John Harman said.
The Environment Agency’s review of the summer 2007 floods will be completed by the end of 2007 and will feed into the Independent Government Review.
