Flood relief effort in South Galway hits record speed

More work had been done in eight months to address South Galway’s flooding crisis than had been done in the last 20 years, it was claimed at this month’s Loughrea municipal district meeting.

In a robust defence of Galway County Council’s role since last winter’s shocking floods, director of services for roads and transportation Liam Gavin said it was not the Council’s role to attend public meetings but it did have a duty to inform councillors what plan of action it was pursuing to alleviate future flooding.

He was responding to criticism from a committee made up of residents affected by successive chronic floods that there would be worse flooding this year because of minor works carried out by Galway County Council without consultation with locals.

The Office of Public Works (OPW) has now given the local authority the green light to advance a flood relief scheme for the Gort Lowlands area which is dotted with a network of turloughs in a protected karst limestone environment. It was also beginning work on the Dunkellin Aggard to strengthen bridges and clear vegetation along channel banks with the main river works set to take place during the summer months from next May over a three-year period, with works expected to be finished by 2018.

Cathaoirleach of Loughrea Municipal District Jimmy McClearn said there was a great deal of frustration among the public that work was not being carried out quickly enough with residents fearing more misery with future floods.

“There was absolutely nothing happening in flooding in South Galway until Galway County Council got involved. We were spending money on reports and consultants but no actual action until Galway County Council got involved,” he exclaimed.

“In totality there is a lot of positive work…this is a problem that existed for a long time. We may not have the solution for this year but hopefully in a meaningful way by next year we can, and do it properly.”

Mr Gavin said he believed Cllr McClearn (FG) had hit the nail on the head.

“Galway County Council has got directly involved. We have got agreement which takes quite a long time to resolve. We will work in agreement with the OPW (Office of Public Works) to take all this information in relation to South Galway, take it down from the shelf and down from the sky and look at it and create a scheme, take it from a concept to reality in as short a time as possible. That’s the first time that has ever happened.”

He pointed out that the Local Authority had spent half a million on minor works drainage schemes in Galway since the beginning of this year and almost a million euro on road raising since last winter’s floods.

“That kind of money has not gone into Gort in donkey years,” he stressed.

The Gort Lowlands scheme would be looked at in an overall way rather than focusing on small sections here and there.

The run-off from the Sliabh Aughty mountains would be included as part of the scheme.

All previous reports would be examined in detail, including the channel recommended in the Jennings-O’Donovan report bringing the water to the sea at Kinvara at the cost of €46 million and the studies of the turloughs and underground water flows.

Cllr Joe Byrne (FG) said in order to mitigate against “potential anarchy”, communication with the public needed to be improved. There were very detailed plans presented publicly on the Dunkellin and Aggard scheme and the residents came away from the process very happy as they understood what was happening.

“There is a huge effort for once and for all to sort the problem that’s existed for 30 years. In all fairness, more work has been done in the last eight months than has been done in 20 years.”

The chairman of the South Galway Flood Relief Committee David Murray said works carried out upstream of Coole will serve to accelerate water into that area.

He believes the streamlining in the upper Owenshree will accelerate water into Kilchreest, Blackrock, Skehanna and eventually through Kiltartan into Coole while Irish Rail have added a new culvert under the railway at Kiltartan which will accelerate water again into Kiltartan and Coole.

The chairman is also critical of a solid wall built at Cahermore, allowing the level of Coole-Caherglassaun basin to rise to 15.2m, which he claims could potentially flood an additional 15 to 20 houses.