Major new report says more needs to be done to improve resilience to flooding

A new report published today by Natural Resources Wales says further work is needed to improve Wales’ resilience to storms.

releasing a report later today that has 47 recommendations to make our coastal communities more resilient to flooding #floodaware

— Cyfoeth Naturiol (@NatResWales) April 30, 2014

Natural Resources Wales released its 47 recommendations to improve the country’s resilience to coastal flooding in the future today (Wed).

The report was put together following the devastating floods of December 2013 and January 2014, which caused widespread damage and forced hundreds of people from their homes.

The River Dee burst its banks on both the northern and Hawarden embankments, Saltney and Sealand

Among its key recommendations are sustained investment in flood forecasting, improved information on coastal flood defence systems, greater clarity on the roles and responsibility of the agencies and authorities tasked with dealing with flooding, assessment of skills and providing more support for communities to become more self-sufficient in their response to warnings.

Deeside and Alyn AM Carl Sargeant said:

“The recent bad weather caused widespread concern among many of my constituents, particularly those who faced red alert flood warnings in areas such as Sealand, the Northern Embankment and Hawarden.

“I am pleased Natural Resources Wales has put together such a detailed and comprehensive report, which will now be considered by Alun Davies AM, minister for natural resources and food.

“The Welsh Government has already put forward around £10m to help communities affected by the recent flooding and we will work closely with partner agencies to bolster our resilience to such events in the future.”

Natural Resources Minister Alun Davies said:

“Scientific evidence suggests that these sorts of weather events will only become more frequent, so it is vital that we keep working to improve not only the resilience of our coast but also our response to severe weather incidents when they occur.”

Jeremy Parr from NRW said three times as much money needs to be invested annually in flood protection than two years ago.

“In plain money terms it was about £45m a year that was being invested. That needs to treble to £135m in order to manage the situation that we’ve got at the moment.”

The six key areas.

• Sustained investment in coastal risk management
Investment in flood forecasting, warning, awareness, response and recovery; investment in new flood defences and to maintain existing ones; calls for more certainty on budgets for flood risk management over a longer term.

• Improved information on coastal flood defence systems
More complete and consistent information on all defences; information on condition, areas they protect and maintenance; to include information on man-made, natural defences and structures where defence is a secondary function i.e. promenades.

• Greater clarity of roles and responsibilities of agencies and authorities
Better clarity to people and communities of who does what; enable more efficient and effective delivery for communities.

• Assessment of skills and capacity
To determine if and where gaps exist in risk management authorities like Local Authorities, Natural Resources Wales, emergency response services etc to improve management of coastal flood and erosions risks.

• More support to communities to become more resilient
More ‘self-sufficient’ communities in the future; enable communities to respond to flood warnings; enable communities to manage their flood risk in the future with support from relevant agencies.

• Delivery of locally developed plans for coastal communities Increased understanding flood risk; enable communities to better adapt to increased risk due to climate change; these plans will be supported nationally and sit alongside Shoreline Management Plans.