How much of this flooding is due to "the cutbacks"?

[Globalti]

I read recently that a lot of river flooding can be attributed to the fact that we no longer dredge our river estuaries for navigation. That got me wondering how much flooding can be blamed on reduced ditch clearing, gully cleaning and general maintenance of the waterways.

Discuss.

...and don't tell me that there's more moisture in the air and it's raining more, because I'm sure we must have had equally wet winters in the past. And it's not as if it's Barratt estates on flood plains because much of the flooding seems to be in well-established villages and towns; we've even seen flooded railways and railways were usually built very well clear of potential flooding.

 

[postman]

They don't clean the street drains either,when i were a kid gulley sucker were always at it.

 

[gbb]

I don't know the answer, but i remember a guy i used to work with in the 80s who was pretty involved environmentally. I remember him talking about the falling water table in S Lincs where he lived. He quoted what the levels were in the 40s say...and what they were in the 80s, and it was strikingly lower.
The weather changes, not year by year but decade by decade. Perhaps we're just into one of those extremely wet periods that happen every 100 or 200 years.
Sometimes i think they actually have improved on past problems. In the 80s we had an extremely wet period (can't remember exactly when) but Wansford, through Chesterton, Peterborough to the Nene Washes were...awash. Chesterton..i swear to god, i'd never have thought the river could come so high up the hill. The washes at Eldernell became a sea...we used to go birdwatching there, we went at this period and all you could see was water for 2 or 3miles into the distance, not just puddles, but like an ocean. I estimated it to be 4 to 6 feet deep at least, an astonomical amount of water.
Yes, they still flood, but not as bad..i heard they control it better now with locks etc.
Between the city centre and Orton Mere, the river is flooded right over now. It ALWAYS flooded there, its a natural collecting point i guess Its just a mix of old scrubland, semi industrial pits from British Sugar, there was nothing there to get damaged.
What did they do ? Built houses right on the edge, a hotel, pub and rowing lakes. At the time (maybe in the 80s) the area flooded, the flats / houses flooded, the hotel was surrounded by masses of water (it may have flooded inside) and the rowing lakes disappeared under the sea of water. No harm there TBF, but the people living there must really worry...if they even know about the history of the area !

No doubt there's shortcoming elsewhere, i hadnt thought about the dredging of rivers / estuaries, but add building on old flood lands, above average rainfall, perhaps poor management of rivers etc...

 

[Peteaud]

How much of this flooding is due to "the cutbacks"?



None, it is to do with the water falling from the sky.

 

[snorri]

I don't know of any estuaries that were dredged in the past and not dredged now, but certainly roadside gullies are not being cleared. I know of one road bridge which suffered partial collapse due to erosion caused by lack of maintenance of roadside drainage.
Locally there seems to be resources to erect flood warning signs but not for clearing the choked gullies that cause the flooding.

 

[pauldavid]

They don't clean the street drains either,when i were a kid gulley sucker were always at it.

There was a girl in our street called the gully sucker when I was in my teens, always remembered fondly.

 

[biggs682]

local 2 us there are 2 places where a small brook pass under roads and the metal bars that are put over the entrance to the tunnels to stop large objects getting through are never cleared so when it rains the surrounding area floods .

and neither have i seen the drain suckers out for years

plus building close to rivers doesnt help , but there are not enough hills to build on

 

[postman]

, but there are not enough hills to build on[/quote]

Mr and Mrs Hill plus their sons Albert and Steep.Would like it to be known that they have a humane right not to be built on.Also the one cyclist who gets knocked off his bike daily.Would also like to ask could motorists be more careful.after all it is Christmas.

And these jokes are crackers,it's the way i tell 'em.

 

[DiddlyDodds]

Its the goverments fault ,, BUT we are the people who put them in there and fund them
Its the rains fault ,, BUT we (if you believe them) have accelerated global warming by Cars and Cows (read a mad fact about the amount of gas released in the air by cows for Mconalds once and it was staggering)
Its the ditches fault for being naturaly silted up .,,, BUT we dont clean them coz we cant be bothered /the French do all the farming now anyway (thats when they are not blockading Calais or burning sheep.

So all in all its YOUR/MY fault so go sit in a corner and dont come out until you say sorry

 

[longers]

Discuss.

I was told over Christmas that part of the problem is farmers not ploughing as deep as they used to and there is now a hard pan which prevents some of the water draining through properly. It wasn't said to be the only reason but one of the many that will be having a cumulative effect.

 

[martint235]

And it's not as if it's Barratt estates on flood plains because much of the flooding seems to be in well-established villages and towns; we've even seen flooded railways and railways were usually built very well clear of potential flooding.

Just because established villages etc are flooded doesn't absolve the Barratt houses from blame. If you're going to build on a flood plain, common sense would suggest some measures to ensure that that the water stays displaced and that water has to go somewhere which is usually back up the watercourse until it hits a weak point.

Interesting to note that the guys that built Tewkesbury Abbey seem to have been expecting flooding though.

 

[Drago]

I can remember a local field adjacent to the river flooding in 1997. Now there are houses on it, but the developers clearly think flooding is a possibility as on the ground floor all the wall sockets are at waist height.

All this house, factory, out of town retail development is a major contributor with all the surface water run off it generates. You'd think they'd get the infra structure up to scratch and capable of handling the Increased demand, but money talks, common sense walks.

 

[Archie_tect]

One day, Mort, one day...

 

[HovR]

Just because established villages etc are flooded doesn't absolve the Barratt houses from blame. If you're going to build on a flood plain, common sense would suggest some measures to ensure that that the water stays displaced and that water has to go somewhere which is usually back up the watercourse until it hits a weak point.

Interesting to note that the guys that built Tewkesbury Abbey seem to have been expecting flooding though.

I've also heard something along these lines. When a new estate of houses was built on a flood plain in Tewkesbury they raised the ground level by 10 feet, resulting in the new houses staying nice and dry. Of course all of the water that used to go in the flood plains now has to go somewhere else, so it drains off in to the lower lying long established sections of the village.

 

[Brains]

My uncles 300 year old farm house, which he moved out of a couple of years ago, flooded for the first time ever this winter.

this was due to the river no longer being dredged, and it is now about 20 feet shallower than it was, so it is now higher than the surrounding land and lives within dykes built over the centuries from the silt they dug from the bottom