LARGE-SCALE flooding has closed roads, threatened harvests and damaged homes in recent days. And the Government has come under pressure to do something about it. As a consequence, Minister for the Environment John Gormley promised publication of a climate change adaptation strategy for early in 2009. Only then will the Cabinet be in a position to consider making extra funding available for flood relief and coastal erosion projects. And work may not begin until 2010.
Whatever about that delay, these matters do require careful consideration. We should not repeat the mistakes of the 1970s, when arterial drainage programmes designed to improve the productivity of agricultural land turned some of our most famous trout and salmon rivers into ankle-deep canals, destroyed amenities and made a moonscape out of river banks.
To be fair, the Office of Public Works (OPW) has learned from that unhappy experience. A deal of money has been spent in the past decade in an effort to undo some of that early damage. Pressure from the European Commission has encouraged the OPW to consult and co-operate with local fishery boards in rehabilitation work while maintaining the effectiveness of the drainage system. And it pays an increasing amount of attention to environmental matters. The EU Water Framework Directive now requires the State and its landowners to treat rivers as biological corridors and to protect the biodiversity found there.
Rivers do not just dispose of excess water. They are valuable community resources that provide drinking water and act as the lungs of the countryside. Flood protection for homes can be installed in most cases without destroying the amenities provided by rivers. It may cost more but doing it right first time will save money in the long run. As for greedy builders and their councillor friends who granted permission to build on flood plains against official advice, they should be held accountable.
Mr Gormley has promised new planning guidelines within weeks. But unless severe penalties can be imposed where councillors and builders ignore the guidelines, they will have little impact. Elsewhere, extreme weather events will continue to bring grief to families in the future. Spending billions on the large-scale canalisation of rivers would not be cost effective. The impact of climate change can be minimised by sensitive flood relief schemes and properly designed housing projects. But, as every schoolchild learns, Ireland is shaped like a saucer. And saucers hold water.