Guest Blogger Anne Kristine Offers a Post on Climate Change: After a Winter of Flooding, The UK Ponders How to Manage Water

In recent times the UK has dealt with its fair share of flooding, and while the government response has been questioned by some (a majority of poll responders felt the government did a poor job responding to the flooding), the UK government ensures their citizens that they are doing all they can to manage water and flooding in the future. Along with the Flood and Water Management Act that was implemented in 2010, the government continues to update their flood plans with different schemes for different regions within the country. The Environment Agency (EA) has also put together tools for local flood authorities in order to help better prepare areas for the possibility of flooding.

Flood Risk Management

The UK government and the EA delegate certain responsibilities to other authorities in order to manage the waters and flooding in general. The lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFA) are unitary authorities or county councils that are responsible for creating, keeping, and applying strategies for local flood risk management in their individual areas. This responsibility covers flooding from surface and groundwater along with ordinary waterways. To help LLFAs manage effectively the EA outlined what each region’s flood risk management strategy should entail. According to the government’s website on flood risk and management, each LLFA strategy must judge the local flood risk for their area, outline intentions for flood management, and list the benefits of certain proposed measures, their costs, and how they will be paid for.

Along with the UK government, the EA, and the LLFAs, district councils, highway authorities, water and sewerage companies, regional flood and coastal committees, and the department of communities and local government all have responsibilities to uphold in regards to water and flood management.

The EA provides LLFAs with resources regarding information to help them create their strategies. Information provided through their website includes information on sustainable drainage, climate change, and asset grading. There are also interfaces for the actual development of strategies.
In the way of actual action, the government has decided to spend over £3.2 billion on flood management and coastal erosion in the financial year 2014 to 2015. This budget is supposed to improve the forecasting of floods and improve the early warning systems for floods. The funding will also help maintain the existing flood defences and will also improve individual flood protection for over 160,000 households. Along with that budget, Defra (The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) agreed to provide £270 million for repairs, restorations, and maintenance of existing defences in response to the severe storms and flooding over the 2013-2014 winter season. This budget includes £130 million and another £140 million announced in February 2014 and March 2014 respectively.

Also announced in February 2014, the EA publicised a programme of flood defence improvement plan. In total, 54 projects will begin between 2014 and 2015 in order to improve protection for over 40,000 homes. Thinking of the future, the project includes a six-year commitment that will hopefully provide protection to upwards of 300,000 homes by 2021.

What’s clear is that after the 2013/14 winter of flooded discontent, water management is now one of the most politically sensitive issues. There is also, of course, a significant impact on businesses operating in the industry. Small-to-medium sized water management and treatment companies like Lagan Water will be on the receiving end of new government contracts, which may not have been signed off prior to the floods. Conversely, there is huge pressure on the water companies, themselves widely viewed as profiteering and under-investing in infrastructure, to prepare their systems for ever more onslaughts. This will come at a cost, which will, inevitably, be passed on to the consumer and business.