Memorandum submitted by the Association
of Drainage Authorities (FL 109)
SUMMER FLOODS 2007
SUMMARY
1. The extreme rainfall that led to widespread
and prolonged flooding in summer 2007, causing severe disruption
and damage across a large swathe of the UK, has drawn close attention
to drainage management in this country.
2. The Environment Agency is doing an in-house
Lessons Learnt Report; the government has set up an enquiry under
the Cabinet Office, chaired by Sir Michael Pitt; and EFRA have
also announced they too are to enquire into flooding. Whilst it
is important to learn the lessons from each flood, it is equally
as important to use those lessons, so it could be wise to dust
off previous reports such as those on the 1998 and 2000 floods.
These drew attention to the need to maintain our investment as
a country in our flood risk management facilities. The Environment
Agency at the moment has insufficient funds to do the required
maintenance and has to prioritise its expenditure.
3. As we have seen from the problems of
a water treatment works being taken out of action and a power
station being only narrowly saved, water level management forms
the basis of a civilised society, as it allows those utilities
upon which we now depend—water, power, communications and
transport—to function effectively. The event has also drawn
attention to the large areas of land in the UK that are below
sea level and rely every day on water level management activities
of the Internal Drainage Boards. This enables people and property
to be at an acceptable level of risk.
4. There is a need to address the balance
between policy and practice and for organisations to be enabled
to have a greater output. It has been estimated that the planning
process for capital works has been extended from "six to
twelve months" to "twelve to eighteen months" as
a result of increased administrative procedures. There has to
be a better balance between proper procedure and output.
5. For a sustainable solution there is a
need to balance the three "legs" of sustainability—environment,
social and economic factors—and there is a widespread belief
that a new balance point needs to be sought. This is because,
currently, habitats and wildlife have to be protected by law whereas
reducing flood risk to people and property is operated only under
permissive powers.
RAINFALL
6. The event is characterised as being of
long (3 months) duration; high monthly totals and high intensity
over 3 hour periods. The Met Office reported that 387.6 mm of
rain fell across England and Wales during the period of May to
July, making it the wettest for this period since records began
in 1766. Not only has the rainfall maintained high monthly totals
but it has come at high intensities, the most extreme falling
in North Yorkshire in June when Fylingdales received 103.1 mm
in 24 hours whilst in July Pershore College in Worcestershire
received 120.8 mm.
STAFFING ISSUES
7. IDB staff and others worked tirelessly
during June and July to deal with the serious flooding and its
ensuing aftermath. Many areas of the country and many thousands
of people will certainly have been saved the misery of flooding
thanks to the efforts of the unsung heroes. The event occurred
not only at a time when some staff were taking leave but was of
such a prolonged nature that those staff who were available worked
long hours to meet the challenges.
8. Another effect that was evident in this
event was the need for staff to move more quickly from normal
operating mode to event mode. There is a need for organisations
to empower staff to use their professional engineering judgement
when an event is under way.
OPERATIONAL MATTERS
9. Issues that have been raised include:
— decisions about use and timing to
start using flood storage areas;
— COWs—since the EA took over
some Critical Ordinary Watercourses, less maintenance has occurred
than previously;
— the timing of change in EA from usual
operations to flood mode;
— the lack of ability in EA to make
decisions in reaction to levels;
— maintenance vs. environment; and
— local operation review of maintenance.
MAINTENANCE
10. Many factors contributed to the inability
of our rivers to carry away the heavy rainfall of this summer
and under such exceptional and sustained rainfall flooding is
certainly unavoidable. However, in some places, lack of maintenance
is likely to have exacerbated the flood and there have been strong
concerns regarding the Environment Agency's reduction and withdrawal
of maintenance procedures within many IDB boundaries.
11. Siltation in channels not only reduces
their conveyance and storage capacity but can also adversely affect
the gravity discharges from other watercourses into them. It is
also necessary to maintain the country's investment in other related
infrastructure such as pumps and sluices so they will be ready
for use when needed.
12. It is likely that this particular flood
will have been exacerbated by maintenance not being done in some
places between April and July for environmental reasons. Indeed
there was one instance where pumps at the end of a drainage network
could not be used to their full capacity as weed growth in the
channel had reduced the conveyance capacity of the water course.
It will be necessary to re-balance the priorities between social,
environmental and economic factors to get a truly sustainable
system that can be operated to its full capacity to reduce flooding.
13. Ottringham Level Drainage Board, like
many others, suffered severe flooding. It occurred in Ottringham
village and a substantial acreage of surrounding agricultural
land. The board have felt strongly that this is compounded by
the EA's failure to dredge the outfall at Stone Creek into the
River Humber for over 20 years, whilst similar views have been
expressed regards dredging of the River Stour.
14. Further maintenance concerns stem from
incentives for environment schemes within the single farm payment
scheme where farmers are encouraged not to conduct ditch maintenance
for a 4 or 5 year period.
15. Attention has been drawn to the issue
of storage on the floodplain.
COST OF
THE EVENT
16. The cost of the event to all the organisations
involved has not yet been quantified but is likely to be significant
in some cases in relation to their budget and balances. Costs
arise from overtime, pumping costs, extra staff and damage repair
work. There has also been a delay to the normal maintenance and
progression of capital works.
FUNDING
17. Indeed at the height of the drought
in 2006 the flood defence budget was raided by DEFRA to offset
the payments to Rural Payments Agency.
18. Although the media attention on the
Summer 2007 floods has already abated, as I write this in September
there are many still suffering the effects of flooding of their
house or business. These businesses—whether retail, industrial
or agricultural—will take months or even years to recover.
The cost of the damage shows just how cost-effective it is to
spend public money on flood risk management. We have a habit in
this county to reacting to these storm events rather than planning
in a structured way, as public memory is exceedingly short.
DESIGN STANDARDS
19. The question frequently asked in flooding
situations is: "Who is to blame?". At a time when a
month's rainfall falls in three hours it cannot be possible to
protect and therefore we must design for exceedance and build
flood resilience into our property and infrastructure.
20. The question that is also being asked
very widely is "Is this an example of global warming?".
However, people's memories are short and events of 1968 and other
years show that as a country we have experienced this scale of
event before. Only time will tell whether these will become more
frequent as the result of global warming.
21. However there is a need to review design
standards.
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
22. There have been calls for the Environment
Agency to be split and an obvious one is for the regulatory side
to be in a separate side from the operational. This would have
the merit of the operational side being a stand-alone organisation
focused on rivers, but could have the downside that for probably
two years the output would be severely diminished whilst new systems
and people were put into place. It would however produce a smaller
organisation thus reducing its overheads and speeding up decision
making.
MEDIA
23. The media were very active on the subject
of drainage and flooding matters and the ADA office handled enquiries
from journalists from the national press, radio and television.
Many IDBs also responded to regional media enquiries. The ADA
contacts resulted in quotes in newspapers (eg Sunday Times, Daily
Mail), live and recorded news interviews on radio (eg Radio Five
Live, Radio 4 Today Programme) and television (eg BBC News 24,
Channel 4 News, BBC One's The One Programme) by Jean Venables,
and briefing of research journalists for programmes such as Panorama
and File on Four.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS
COMMENTS
24. This particular event was typified by
being extremely variable across the country. Whilst some areas
of Cambridge were experiencing normal rainfall, a few miles north
a month's rainfall fell in three hours and there were indeed record
rainfalls for two consecutive months. This shows that standard
national policies cannot be rolled out when there are such varying
circumstances. For example, it was necessary to move from summer
to winter operating levels to assist the drainage even though
it was June and these decisions in some cases should probably
have been made more quickly.
25. What is certainly changing is public
expectation. There is now a belief that these floods will be managed
and it will have to be argued that this cannot be possible. We
will have to look at the various aspects of flood risk management
starting from spatial planning, drainage, flood risk warning,
flood defences and water level management as well as building
resilience into properties and infrastructure.
26. During the flood event it was distressing
to see so many people walking, cycling, driving through flood
water or indeed allowing children to play in flood waters. There
is not just the water quality issue but the danger from hidden
trip hazards and missing manhole covers.
27. These comments have been drawn from
comments received, especially from Internal Drainage Boards, during
and after the Summer 2007 Flood Event.
Jean Venables
ADA Chief Executive
September 2007
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