State offers no guarantees against second flooding disaster

Date Published: 19-Dec-2009

THE lead State agency dealing with river drainage and flood relief offered little hope to the people of Galway that they would be protected from a repeat tragedy in a briefing to the county council in which it was outlined that flood risk management plans would not be in place until 2015.

Two representatives from the Office of Public Works (OPW) fielded questions from councillors about their role, responsibilities and powers to deal with flooding.

It emerged that the OPW had recently been appointed the lead body in the management of drainage schemes to alleviate flooding problems. however it still only had control over a quarter of the country’s rivers and streams. Local authorities had responsibility for drainage districts, which was a further 25$ of the State’s waterways – in Galway the main drainage districts are the River Suck, Dunkellin, Ahascragh and Lavally.

“That leaves a substantial number of watercourses for which no State authority currently has a legislative responsibility from a flood management perspective, including the River Shannon,” stated John Murphy, regional engineer in the OPW.

In 2002 the government announced a review of national flood policy and it was recommended to implement 15 work programmes: among them flood hazard mapping; river basin flood risk management planning; flood forecasting and warning; emergency response development; planning and development control and high risk channel designation.

While there was flood warning systems on the Munster Blackwater and the Barrow to warn towns such as Fermoy, Mallow and Carlow, this has yet to be extended to locations in Galway.

To meet its obligations under EU law, the State is obliged to have a countrywide flood risk management plan in place by 2015. Initial draft plans are expected to be submitted the year before.

For more on this OPW meeting see page 4 of this week’s Connacht Tribune

See also

• Council counts cost of flood damage to county’s roads
• Authorities prepare blueprint to prevent repeat of Ballinasloe’s flooding disaster
• OPW Minister meets local TD’s
• Hope comes for flood victims – from Beyond The Hall Door