Why Is Our Government So Mean When It Comes To Helping Our Own?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2547737/Drowning-misery-Homes-flooded-month-vast-tracts-farmland-wrecked-lives-hold-staggering-incompetence.html

We spend billions in overseas aid, but when it comes to our own people, we do not seem to want to spend money on them.

/// Large volumes of rainwater cannot run to the sea and instead the rivers burst their banks. But neither the Government or the Environment Agency has come up with the £4million to restart the dredging. ///

/// The agency has offered just £350,000 – leaving the county council and charities to find the rest of the money. ///

[douglas9401]

It does seem odd. Some would say that 4-5 weeks of standing water, many feet deep, was just about enough.
It's almost as if there are no self agrandising international headlines in it for them.

[tamborine]

I dont think the Gov is aware of local council neglect clearing storm drains, dredging streams etc. Some maybe Water Board neglect.

[Gromit]

Dredging is probably a waste of money.

// The Environment Agency says it spent £45m in the last financial year on improving river flow, including dredging and weed clearance.

It says increased dredging would not have prevented the current flooding in the Somerset Levels - due to the sheer amount of water.

"Dredging is often not the best long term or economic solution compared with other flood risk measures such as building walls or providing storage upstream - and would not reduce flood risk on all the rivers on the Somerset Levels because of their tidal nature," a spokeswoman said.

'Allow floods'
Alastair Chisholm, policy manager at the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, explained that those in favour of dredging think that a bigger river will allow water to flow faster and more efficiently.

But he said it would not carry enough water when compared to the size of the flood plain - even if the capacity of the river were increased by 50%, it is a relatively small amount when compared to the amount of flooding in the area. //

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25911391

The Somerset Levels are a flood Plain. We must just accept that they flood, that is how they were formed and is there function.

But I notice Cameron is acting like a Cnut again.

[sunny-dave]

You buy a house on a flood plain ... then you complain when you get flooded?

Not all natural events are controllable - after having a good read around I can't see that there has been any culpable negligence here - the wettest January ever has caused extensive flooding.

It's bloody horrible when it happens to you (been there and got the soggy T-shirt), but actually this really isn't the fault of any one person (or indeed organisation).

[youngmafbog]

Well quite. The clue is in the name 'Flood' plain.

And as Gromit points out dredging is often not the right solution. It can destroy things like the banks and if it flows more (and so faster) then it will soon silt up again. Rivers aer Natural things as are the flood plains they are Naturally supposed to flood onto. But we keep building on them and I really can't see why.

[mushroom25]

sunny dave, YFB, somerset's problems aren't a clear case of building on a flood plain and then moaning about the inevitable, since most of the affected properties are marooned on islands of high ground, rather than being flooded. the levels were a reed infested swamp until drained by specialist engineers at about the same time as the fens and much of the Netherlands were drained; the levels now form much of somerset's available farmland. this is a man-made landscape which needs to be managed, but the environment agency seem to want to allow it to return to how it used to be, and have even spent £31m on dismantling defences to create a wetland bird sanctuary.

[LazyGun]

Good article from Monbiot in the article about why dredging might not represent the best solution for the flooding, and the confusion and u-turns on the best way to manage the situation within government itself.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/30/dredging-rivers-floods-somerset-levels-david-cameron-farmers

[mushroom25]

LG, there's a lot of truth in the assertion that more must be done upstream. sadly though, the EU don't provide subsidies for bogs or woods, only for unused farmland. Thus farmers are being paid to destroy the very facilities that could make a difference downstream

[Peter Pedant]

.

The envirnoment agency seems to be full of graduates in various ologies, who cant understand water doesnt flow up hill -

It certainly looks like standing water which will have to be drained rather than flowing away by itself.

I think this is the first time I have agreed with AOG - and the Daily Pervert....

[Peter Pedant]

yong ma bog - the Somerset levels arent flood plains
they are just sort of low

In the sixties - the water level in Kings moor sedge was always about 6' below ground level - whereas with the Gigantic hosepipes whenever they are shown on teevee, - the river level seems above the ground - and if the drains are silted, then it not surprising the levels are sodden.

[LazyGun]

@Mushroom "Thus farmers are being paid to destroy the very facilities that could make a difference downstream"

Agreed, it is a nonsense.And it is perfectly correct to point the finger at at least part of the CAP for hindering some sensible measures that would do a lot to ameliorate the effects of heavy rainfall. Monbiot did a more detailed article earlier in the week addressing this point too, for those interested. Makes for interesting reading.

http://www.monbiot.com/2014/01/13/drowning-in-money/

[Gromit]

Flooding has always occurred on the Somerset Levels throughout history. It is thought the word my derive from the place only being used in the summer due to flooding and it become known as 'Sumorsaete' meaning land of the summer people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_Levels

[Gromit]

Thanks for posting that link LazyGun. Most interesting.

[mikey4444]

AOG ...amazing photos !

Many years ago I used to live in that part of Somerset. The difficulty is that much of it is at sea level. But the Government should have acted quicker, there is no doubt about it.

[mikey4444]

Some of these villages and communities on the Levels have been there since medieval days. Its not as if millions of houses have been built on a known flood plain, such as outside Oxford and other places. Dave should have pulled his bl00dy finger out weeks ago and offered the Army then, not waited for weeks before doing something.

As regards the money, central government ought to put its bl00dy hand in its pocket and do the decent thing !

[paddywak]

Irrespective of the dredging and flood plain issue the simple fact remains that the goverment seems to be quite happy to send millions of the tax payers money abroad yet very reluctant to spend any to help the people who supply the money the first case.