Despite saying that I wouldnt be posting for a while the flooding that has so devastated areas of Yorkshire and the rest of the North over the last few days stirred me to put the metaphorical pen to paper . I have huge sympathy with those that have been directly affected by the flooding and hope that those poor unfortunate victims are both asisted now and will in the future be better protected,.
But I fear that once again the opinion of how to provide that protection will make us hear the clamour for higher longer and more expensive flood defenses . Which I also fear will do little else but shift the problem further down the catchment. The same with dredging a hugely expensive and futile operation , especially without correct upland and famland management to avoid silt erosion and depostion.
The arguements and expert opions are well known and well publisised but seem largely to fall upon deaf ears . The few that seem to be willing to put their heads above the parapets and dare to suggest that perhaps the answer may lie in upland management and holding the rain where it lands are dismissed as radicals . Yet the experts agree and the governement ignores them, desperate not to upset the landowner and farming lobby . The governent not only denies the experts it even kills its own EA report which states that dredging is not the answer
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/07/hide-evidence-storm-desmond-floods-paris-talks
The health of our watercourses gos beyond the angling community, its wildlife and the people that live along and around it . Isnt it about time when we can send men into space that we learn to manage the rainfall that falls on the land,
All that water in the picture is simply rain that fell on the land and then we contrived to allow it to run off the land quickly and flow through a network of rivers that we have managed into highly effective drains , the conclusion is obvious . It reaches a pinch point which is usually a valley bottom around a settlement and bursts its banks . Its obvious to me surely its obvious to everyone. Ignore the global warming and climate change red herring the facts are plain and simple but it seems the government just cant see them.
3 comments:
Don't feel that it just your Government that doesn't listen. We have levee's all along the Sacramento River that runs right through Sacramento. They are so run down that the only thing the State of California can do is patch here and patch there. If El Nino is as big as they keep saying, I won't be surprised when the levee's break. Going to be a mess if they do.
We all know it's the upper headlands and catchment areas that need addressing Andy and as anglers we know just how quick these floods can arrive, everyone tries to point it out to the government, but they act upon the hit areas because it makes them look good, OK them areas need addressing when flooding happens, but they really need to start addressing issues upstream
What will it take for all to accept that you cannot beat Mother Nature? It is our greed and avarice that has led us to ignore her in pursuit of gain and to abandon traditional land management practices instead of working with her. Farming is but one example, forestry another. Misinformation is the key. Are general public aware that year after year the EA budget has been reduced and yet they aided by the politicians look to turn the blame on them. The Government emergency planning group would be better renamed as COBBLERS and not COBRA. I would say to the British Government worry less about the state of the worlds climate and put your own house in order.
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