It is time for the Government to join the dots linking economic development and global warming and start a discussion on realistic and affordable measures to counteract future flood and storm damage. Extreme weather events are predicted to increase in frequency and severity because of carbon emissions and rising temperatures, and the State must plan accordingly.
This is the third time in nine years that Ireland has experienced what planners regard as a 20-year flood event. Once again, public service workers, members of the Defence Forces, volunteer groups and community activists have been asked to fill sandbags, pump water and protect lives and property. But, in some instances, the rising waters won.
Although Bandon in Co Cork and Crossmolina in Co Mayo experienced flooding, the Shannon catchment – from Lough Allen to the sea at Limerick – produced the most damaging effects. Rivers and lakes overflowed and emergency relief action, which caused the flooding of some homes, had to be taken by the ESB.
Some people, understandably, are angry. Certain flood relief measures promised were not implemented. Others feel betrayed by the planning system and the impact of local objections. They became the victims of sometimes corrupt councillors and greedy developers who, during the Celtic Tiger years, secured permission to build housing estates and industrial units on traditional flood plains.
The predictable happened, but what is to be done? Many of those affected can no longer get flood insurance and the cost of remedial measures would be excessive. Demands to dredge tributaries or to drain the Shannon itself have been made – as if such action would speed run-off sufficiently on an island shaped like a saucer. Farmers, facing flooded fields, appear unwilling to recognise a connection between planned beef production and global warming.
Wilful political blindness has contributed to these problems. An expert committee on climate change advised the then government some 30 years ago that rising sea levels, more intense storms and higher winter rainfall posed a growing threat in low-lying areas.
It recommended a ban on housing developments there. Nothing happened until the OPW published a flood hazard map that alerted house-purchasers to the risks involved. By then, the horse had bolted.
It would be cheaper to move people out of flood-prone homes and business premises than to undertake hard engineering works with no certainty of success. Compensation would, of course, have to be paid.
Other countries are adopting ‘soft’ engineering initiatives, encouraging upland farm practices that slow water flow while reinstating some flood plains to protect cities and towns. Careful, long-term planning and unpopular decision taking is required. So is cooperation of the farming community.