It has been a winter of discontent for communities living in a large swathe across the south and south-west of England and Wales, with unprecedented rain and flooding dislocating lives, homes and work.
As weary local communities and a disaster management apparatus on the ground brace themselves for another week of bad weather predicted by the Met Office, it remains unclear if the worst is over or is yet to come.
Worst since 1910
Met office statistics show that this has been the wettest January since 1910 for southeast and central southern England region. The region of the worst flooding — southwest England and south Wales — has received 222.6 mm of rain till January 28, making it the wettest January since 1995.
The figures have been brought to life by distressing images telecast out from the affected areas — vast sheets of water inundating agricultural fields; villages and homes marooned; schools and businesses affected, and exhausted and angry residents demanding that the Government address their problems.
The village of Muchelney in Somerset — cut off by flood-waters since Christmas — has become emblematic of the crisis.
The Environmental Agency on Saturday issued five severe flood warnings (indicating danger to life) in the south-west and the Midlands, and 156 standard warnings (where flooding is expected and requires immediate action).
Unique bio-system
The Somerset Levels has suffered the brunt of the flooding. The area, covering roughly 250 square kilometres is a unique bio-system. Historically formed by human reclamation of a submerged marshy region, it is a low-lying wetland crisscrossed by rivers, which is prone to flooding.
As a good part of this region is below sea level, it is vulnerable to both tidal as well as land-based flooding.
The torrential rain has resulted in the two rivers of this region, the Tone and Parrett, burst their banks and flood the surrounding region, devastating farms and countryside.
Army out
The gravity of the situation has warranted army help in flood protection and food distribution. With homes and fields under water for the fifth consecutive week, local councils in the area are renewing calls for overflowing rivers to be dredged.
Long-term solution
The ongoing debate in the U.K. on finding a long- term solution to the problem of recurrent flooding in an ecologically fragile, essentially man-made ecosystem has instructive lessons for other regions and countries in a situation of climate change worldwide. Like elsewhere, a political dimension arises when popular opinion is pitted against scientific wisdom.
The issue in the forefront is of dredging. If the rivers had been dredged of long-accumulated silt, making them deeper and broader, they would have had the capacity to carry excess floodwater from the surrounding plains. This is the argument made by local communities and their elected representatives.
The EA rejects this as a long-term solution. It argues that this would be “equivalent to trying to squeeze the volume of water held by a floodplain within the volume of water held in the river channel.” This would be environmentally damaging and expensive, and will in any case not solve the problem of flooding.
Besides, dredging would only push the problem downstream, George Monbiot, environmentalist and Guardian columnist argues. “You can increase the flow of a river by dredging, but that is likely to cause faster and more dangerous floods downstream,” he said.
Clearly, immediate concerns must find compatibility with long-term ecological sustainability, and the reality of climate-change. Chris Smith, head of the Environmental Agency on Monday defined the problem in a newspaper article as involving “tricky issues of policy and priority: town or country, front rooms or farmland.” Some dredging, yes, but only as part of a “broader range of work”.
The strategy that is devised and its effectiveness will be of universal interest. Whatever the outcome, the eco-scape of the Somerset Levels is set for change.
