As the hard rain continues to fall, Gareth Kane, keeping a nervous eye on the river that runs past his house, thinks we should get realistic?
"If it keeps on raining, the levee's gonna break, When the levee breaks, I ain't got no place to go" sang Memphis Minnie on 'When the Levee Breaks' back in 1929, referring to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. You might be more familiar with Led Zeppelin's thunderous 1971 version of the song, propelled along by the apocalyptic beats of legendary Black Country tub thumper, John Bonham. And this morning I can bring this blues/weather riff in a rather tenuous full circle as vast tracts of the West Midlands lie up to their armpits in brown sludgy water.
On Radio 4's Today programme this morning the stories of people fighting over bottled water and panic buying in shops was followed by a piece on housing. Some anonymous Government Spokesperson said it was "unrealistic" to stop building on flood plains. "Unrealistic?!!!", I spat at the radio, "Go and tell the good people of Tewkesbury that their current predicament is 'unrealistic'". Sometimes I get very angry at stupidity and this was one of those times. "Why do you think no one has built on these flood plains before? The clue is in the name."
The other daft thing I've heard about these floods is that 'drainage is inadequate'. You have to ask these people how drains work. They take water downwards towards rivers, causing the level in the river to rise upwards. If that level rises too far, then drains won't work no matter how good they are. OK you could re-sculpt the entire topography of the UK to make the rivers work better, but I would argue it would more "realistic" not to build on flood plains in the first place.
According to the climatologists, we're now locked into a trend of severe weather events for the foreseeable future, whether we stop emitting greenhouse gases or not. I think its about time we got realistic.
Until next time,
Gareth
Gareth Kane
Eco-living Blog
Terra Infirma
Gareth
It is the most dull subject in the world but SUDS
(or Sustainable Urban Drainage) does promote better drainage; see the Ciria;
"Sustainable Drainage Systems (SUDS) are being championed by many organisations including the Environment Agency, DEFRA and SEPA as a sustainable alternative to traditional drainage schemes. There are a number of disparate organisations incorporating SUDS and undertaking research on their performance to facilitate the development of guidance and encourage greater uptake of SUDS in developments."
The problem with SUDS is that it takes a huge amount of space. You can't just drop a SUDS system into the centre of Gloucester...