PHILIP O'REILLY,
Madam, - Your edition of October 22nd carried a picture of a county council worker knee-deep in water, attempting to clear heavy flooding on the coast road at Dún Laoghaire in a graphic illustration of the stable door and bolting horse scenario. How is it not possible to identify the weak links in the drainage system of this city and have effective preventive measures taken before the onset of winter rains?
If the problems are caused by blocked drains, why can these not be maintained? If, on the other hand, there is a blockage in the system, why can this not be identified and cleared? There is very powerful and sophisticated equipment available to tackle such tasks these days.
Drainage system capacity may in places be inadequate. If this is so, in light of recent years of heavy rainfall, why have such bottlenecks not been rectified?
As for the comments of the Dublin city deputy engineer, Mr Battie White, advising that leaves can be an additional problem at this time of the year (a classic example of stating the obvious), I cannot see much evidence of any extra effort being made to deal with this predictable event. Mr White said the council had deployed gully-cleaning crews in both preventive and emergency capacities to cope with leaf falls. This suggests the council will effectively ignore gullies which are already chocked up with muck and dirt laid down over long periods, sometimes years, as these, it would appear, fall outside the job description of the maintenance crews.
If Mr White walks from Rathmines to Ranelagh through Castlewood Avenue and Charleston Road he should observe that some 70 per cent of the gullies on this short stretch of highway are partly or fully blocked. It will be clear also that most have been blocked for a long time, not just because of this year's leaf fall. There is no doubt that the lack of gully maintenance was a major cause of the severe flooding in Ranelagh on Sunday, October 13th, when water from brief, heavy rainfall cascaded down this thoroughfare flooding businesses and residences.
As Dublin continues to be battered by downpours and strong winds, is there any action plan envisaged - or do we have to resign ourselves to living in fear of being washed out of house and home with every fall of rain? - Yours, etc.,
PHILIP O'REILLY, Annavilla, Dublin 6.