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THIS WEEK, WE saw major floods affect areas that stretched from Carrick-on-Shannon to Athlone, to south Clare.
In Shannon Harbour, a small village in Co Offaly, three locals were working together to try to source a pump to relieve the threat they were under. Each year, usually during the winter, the threat of a flood looms over them.
The issue of floods is one that is expected to worsen as time goes on. Before, it was expected that we would get major floods once every decade, or every 100 years even; now that’s changed to once every four years or so, going by the last 15 years.
We don’t have enough data to say for sure that this is climate change related, but it is part of a Europe-wide pattern; rivers are drying up in some areas, and getting stronger, with more forceful currents in others.
So the issue of flooding along the Shannon catchment area is likely to get worse, both through frequency from year-to-year, and the volume of water that is spilling over banks, gathering on people’s land and threatening their homes.
So what’s being done about it by Irish authorities, and is it enough?
The extent of the floods
Dr Mary Bourke, an assistant professor of geography at Trinity College Dublin, said that because we only have data going back to the 1960s about our rivers, “we can’t say definitively” that increasing flood levels are related to climate change, and it’s “unreasonable to try to predict” when and what kind of floods there will be in the future.
The data we do have from the 1960s shows that for each decade the floods increase by 5% (that’s measured in the cubic metre of water released per second).
She calls this “significant”, and notes that the change is not the same for all European rivers: “Some are drying up, and others are getting wetter.”
What is the government doing?
Part of the government’s strategy is a European Union-wide approach, which means taking a number of measures.
This is being done through the Water Framework Directive (WFD), which is European legislation that promotes a new approach to water management through river basin planning. It covers inland surface waters, estuarine waters, coastal waters and groundwater.
Phase one took place up until 2015, and we’re now in phase two (Catchment.ie illustrates the water status all over Ireland with a very helpful interactive map).
It involves analysing the current situation with floods in Ireland, looking at what is situated along the Shannon: is it a high-value industry, a farm with a disused shed, and puts a value on that. It then assesses how much it would cost to defend these properties.
In a statement to TheJournal.ie about the actions being taken to fight flooding in areas around the Shannon, the Office of Public Works (OPW) said cited the Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) Programme, and its Flood Risk Management Plans (FRMPs).
“A Shannon study included 67 of the 300 areas in total studied with over 17,800km2 of river being surveyed and modelled and over 10,000 individual flood maps produced to highlight the flood risk along the Shannon catchment,” the statement said.
The FRMPs that include 34 new flood relief schemes to protect towns in the Shannon River Basin District, as part of the government’s €1 billion investment in flood relief over the next decade.
“These new schemes are in addition to 13 schemes already completed or under construction,” the OPW said. “Together, these will protect 95% of properties against their significant risk from flooding.”
Work is now complete or underway to protect 80% of at risk properties; details of these schemes are available on www.floodinfo.ie.
Dredging the Shannon
This has been suggested by a number of people affected by the flooding, as well as a number of local politicians.
“Dredging is used for navigation to help boats move up and down an area easier, and increase capacity of a channel to hold its flow,” Dr Bourke says. “If a certain area needs to move water much quicker, dredging can do that.”
But she adds that there can be negative hydrological and ecological effects to dredging.
There’s a misunderstanding about how rivers work: If you’re shooting out water at a high speed, that will have a knock-on effect down to the next village and others that live in that area.
No one can do anything along the river without it affecting those further down: with a faster current, you’re eroding the banks downstream, and putting bridges under pressure. Will they be able to withstand a more powerful stream? Will people’s lives be at risk because of this?
Bourke wonders have measures been taken in some areas that are already negatively affecting others further downstream.
She adds that dredging can work to reduce smaller floods, but says that where it would not be effective is “to manage the floods in the Shannon”.
The OPW said that in December last year, the government agreed to support an investment of €7 million to “advance a planned programme of maintenance works and the removal of constrictions or ‘pinch points’ on the bed of the River Shannon at the Callows Region between Athlone and Meelick Weir to halt the deterioration and to improve the conveyancing of the River Shannon”.
“This investment includes the costs for the full environmental assessments required to progress the works to the planning process to obtain consent to proceed.”
The OPW said that it also operates a ‘Minor Works Flood Mitigation Works and Coastal Protection Scheme’, where applications can be made by local authorities and are considered for projects that are estimated to cost not more than €750,000 each.
“Funding of up to 90% of the cost is available for approved projects. Applications are assessed by the OPW having regard to the specific economic, social and environmental criteria of the scheme. Full details of this scheme are available on www.opw.ie.
Farmers
One of the arguments for dredging is that there is a bed of silt, or clay, lying at the bottom of some rivers that has an impact on the water levels, and needs to be dredged.
An alternative is to stop this silt reaching the rivers in the first place. This could be done by encouraging pools of water to sit on farmers’ fields instead of it running down into rivers.
“How farmers are persuaded to do it varies: you can offer to build a pond, or a bridge using the new Common Agricultural Payment from the EU,” Bourke suggests, adding it doesn’t have to be a flat payment.
She says that allowing the rain to leak down into wetlands and forests can reduce the height of floods, and that Scotland and Yorkshire are “amazing examples of this”. But this would also only work for small catchment areas.
“We have to sacrifice flood areas and accept they will be wet, and defend other areas.”
The 1% flood
“I think it’s absolutely tragic, shocking,” Dr Bourke says when asked to assess the flood damage done to people’s homes.
“A lot of the building is not very well planned or thought out – these people were not fully informed that they could have been building on a flood plain. They may have been told it was a ’100-year-flood area’ and interpreted it as ‘once in 100 years’.”
There’s a massive misunderstanding by certain news agencies about the ‘once in 100 years’ flood. It’s a 1% chance every year: what it actually means is that in any year, we have a 1% chance of something happening.
Bourke says that more flooding is not the only problem – it’s drought as well. A research paper highlighted that in the 1800s in Ireland, there was a drought that lasted a decade. So not only should we prepare for floods, efforts should be made to store rainwater, too.
“They can harvest and store the rainfall using sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS). We can begin to use permeable materials, like highly-porous cement, for footpaths, so the water will sit there and slowly seep through.”
We should not talk about floods only when it’s flooding.
Do we need one authority for the Shannon?
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and a number of councillors and experts have suggested that one authority for looking after the River Shannon would help tackle flooding challenges.
Along with the OPW, the ESB manages dams such as the Parteen Weir, and Waterways Ireland also have responsibility for rivers.
The Shannon Flood Risk State Agency Coordination Working Group almost already does this: it was established in 2016 to support existing plans to address flooding, and to enhance the cooperation of all State agencies involved with the River Shannon.
The Group was established, at that time, following severe flooding arising from exceptional weather conditions in December 2015/ January 2016. It has a useful series of FAQs, available at this link.
The OPW said that “on its establishment, a priority for the group was to develop a work programme that demonstrated the extensive range of activities and coordination by all State agencies already underway to jointly and proactively address flood risk along the Shannon”.
Among the decisions the group has taken, are:
Taking matters into local hands
Bourke says that local communities shouldn’t completely rely on authorities, either.
“We should also know that we have the power as communities to set up river trusts, which allow people to take control over the problems they see for their rivers. They’re cleaning-up systems,” she says, citing the Inishowen Rivers Trust as an example.
The charitable group aims to conserve, protect, rehabilitate and improve the rivers and natural water bodies of the Inishowen Municipal District. In August 2017 Inishowen was hit by severe flooding, which left many devastated areas around the peninsula.
In an effort to understand the flood and look at ways forward, the Inishowen Rivers Trust organised an event in February 2018 entitled ‘Slow the Flow’ which brought flood experts to Inishowen. Bourke has carried out research on retaining natural water in the area.
“People have been completely traumatised and tired from the lack of action. The Inishowen River Trust keeps pushing for the OPW to fix this, that and the other,” she says, but they have also taken initiatives upon themselves.
The IRT board has about 10 people on it, and volunteers help when it floods. The group is organic, which is not unique but it’s pretty special.
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Dredging the Shannon, if done in the correct way would solve most of the problems with flooding. A small handful of properties need to bite the bullet and accept demolition of their one-off bungalow bliss and be relocated to higher ground as nearby as possible.
The simple reality is that the volume of a river’s capacity needs to be at the maximum potential to swiftly move these amounts of water to the sea as quickly as possible. Once this has been addressed, we need to seriously look at land management in the western two-thirds of this island.
Long gone are the days of farming on low-yield soils and long gone are the days of cutting away bogs. Bog restoration would provide a natural sponge to hold back large rainfalls and release it slowly, whereas returning low-yield farmland to forestry (deciduous type) would help soak up ground water from soils already saturated for much of the year.
We need a land management agency and a waterways management agency under one roof planning and singing from the same hymn sheet. It can be done, it should be done, it needs to be done.
Otherwise stuff like this will continue to haunt the Shannon area: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CM9ZP-FWoAAS0LX.jpg
@Laois Weather: Just to add to the above piece:
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/image-117.png
A picture paints a thousand words.
@Laois Weather: eh, the expert in the article just explained why dredging would be of no benefit – whether it’s done ‘properly’ or not! At best it would move the problem to the people downriver. Dredging is needed on a tiny percent of the length of the Shannon, and it’s more to do with boat navigation than flooding.
@Laois Weather: That being true (bite the bullet) the government should relocate people and reimburse those with land as it was their planning departments that allowed it in the first place. Otherwise people will be ruined.
@Laois Weather: a little bit of hobest civil engineering with whiile lacking the the brown envelopes might do the trick as in. Ask Denmark
@Seamus Mc Nulty: the government doesn’t own or control planning departments, or make county-by-county planning policy.
@Laois Weather: it would solve nothing.
The shannon drops 100 feet from Carrick on shannon to Limerick, and most if that drop consists of four sudden steps at Jamestown, athlon, meelick and parteen. Tge river is essentially actually flat, and dredging it just deepens the channel and creates a hole that immediately fills up with water — it night as well be filled with concrete for all the effect it would have on the flow.
The shannon has a broad floodplain which floods when heavy rain falls on saturated ground. Any developments on flood plains will flood too.
Dredging the shannon is an effective tool for politicians seeking votes; it has worked in that way for as long as I remember. It does nothing for water levels though, you can’t defy gravity or make water flow up hills.
@John Mulligan: absolutely. It’s a flat river and, if you’ll excuse the pun, everything flows from that.
@John Mulligan: while you are right in a way increasing capacity by deepening the channel means less water spills out of the channel. If you pour a litre of water into a pint glass it spils out, if you pour it into a litre jug none spills out. By dredging the shannon you also increase capacity by helping the water thats in it to escape to the sea quicker. The main thing is the water needs to be able to get to the sea and that dredging happens from the sea back up to the source. You would still likely get flooding but it wouldn’t be as high as it is currently
@Brian Burke: Brian you don’t think logic. Dredging should be done by Dutch experts. Dredging can not be done here and there only than is it becoming a problem.
@Laois Weather: “long gone are the days of farming on low yield soils “
You do realise that most of the farmland around the Shannon region is some of the best soil around ? Most of the lands are under limestone . It ain’t Connemara
@Dino: and if you pour a 5 gallon container of water into the jug it spills over. The amount of water in these floods can’t be contained in the main river channel. The only solution is to slow down the water getting into the main river channel
@Dino: the additional capacity achieved by dredging the channel is insignificant in the context of the problem.
@Laois Weather: Sure in the 1960s when there was far less rain, so not a valid comparison.
The headline really says it all , as in it would seem they don’t know their arse from their elbow. So many of these places were never suitable for building homes on in the first place, so how did they get PP? Then you have other homes that have been in the family for generations & being flooded for the first time. Perhaps that’s down to doggie drainage as a result of bad planning.
@Colette Kearns: In the general case, planners often refuse permission, but a word is had with a local TD or councillor, and it is granted. Family land, help the elderly parents, can’t afford a house in town, etc.
@George Salter: remember that Councillors decide planning policy, not planners. The planning system is not there to prevent people making decisions which turn out to be unwise.
It’s hilarious the denial. We’ve had an unprecedented number of storms bringing rain in from the Atlantic on a continuous conveyer belt. This isn’t normal rainfall for Ireland, it’s climate change. It was predicted by climate modelling decades ago. Dredging won’t fix it. Many of these houses are built in areas that have never flooded in the past. It’s exactly the same story in the UK. Blaming and pointing fingers is like Australians blaming policymakers for the forest fires instead of 5 consecutive years of heatwaves caused by climate change. If you want to blame someone, it’s YOUR fault having such a dependency on fossil fuel.
@Paraic: You know more than the experts then?
From: https://www.met.ie/cms/assets/uploads/2020/02/FebRain.pdf (Met Eireann)
“In Met Éireann, basic trend analysis has been performed on a number of high quality rainfall stations over a fifty year period. Some stations show an increase in the frequency of heavy precipitation (>10mm) / very heavy precipitation (>20mm) days over the past decades, however other stations show a decrease, there is large regional variation and occasionally conflicting trends from stations that are geographically relatively close. The fact that rainfall displays such a high degree
of variability, both temporally and spatially makes it difficult to be definitive about trends.”
And from: https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/0227/1117988-storms-ireland
“The causes of the high storminess during the Little Ice Age continue to be debated, but one theory is that powerful storms were produced by a strong cooling of the North Atlantic. There are several pieces of evidence supporting this North Atlantic cooling. Records from Iceland show that there was a greater persistence of sea ice around the coastline at this time. There were recurrent collapses of the cod fishery on the Faroe Islands during the Little Ice Age, which is an indication of colder temperatures as cod do not survive in water below 2°C”
I wonder what fossil fuels were burned around 1400AD to cause those storms? The green loons trying to link *every* weather event to Climate Change and slurring people who argue against this as “deniers” is as dishonest as one can be. Climate Change always happened – and to say that humans are 100% responsible for this is pure folly.
The endless list of failed predictions by the Climate Change Alarmists should be enough evidence for people to see through the agenda – apparently not though, 12 voted in TDs shows how gullible the youth are.
@Daniel Dunne: Cherry pick much?
” Human-caused climate change intensifies the heaviest downpours. More than 70% of the planet’s surface is water, and as the world warms, more water evaporates from oceans, lakes, and soils. Every 1°F rise also allows the atmosphere to hold 4% more water vapor. So when weather patterns lead to heavy rain, there is even more moisture available for stronger downpours, increasing the risk and severity of flooding.” I don’t claim to know more than the experts, I just know how to listen to them.
@Paraic: Should we add that to the list of failed predictions?
https://cei.org/blog/wrong-again-50-years-failed-eco-pocalyptic-predictions
@Daniel Dunne: I don’t see any specific reference in either of the articles you posted that supports the idea that the increased precipitation we are witnessing is not due to climate change. Basically what you are trying to imply is that variation between rainfall measuring stations = no unusual rainfall happening. Storms thousands of years ago = No climate change now. Really weak arguments. Classic confirmation bias at work in fact.
@Paraic: the climate changes constantly, the reasons for it are whats debatable. In this article alone the “expert” mentions a drough that lasted a decade in Ireland in the 1800s, I guess that was caused by global warming too? I was reading about a pre incan civilisation in south America a couple of weeks ago and it is thought that they were wiped out by floods followed by extended drought back in 1100 or so. I understand your fear and feel sorry for the alarmists running around telling everyone the end is nigh but its not, its just nature. I bet you’re one of the people in a panic over this corona viris too? Some people just like to panic I guess
@Daniel Dunne: If you want to get your facts from a denialist blog, suit yourself. Literally nobody is saying that tabloid newspapers should be treated like peer reviewed research papers. But it’s typical of denialist loons to argue a point that nobody made. Personally, I listen to 100% of climatologists.
@Dino: The “I read about stuff that happened before” argument is more denialist tripe. Don’t you think that climatologists know about climatological events in the past and take them into account? The Shannon basin is very badly flooded, the worst in my living memory and there’s no sign of the rain abating. How does that fit into the “they said stuff would happen but it didn’t” argument? How about “They said there would be more flooding, more forest fires, polar ice melting, rising seas, more intense storms, more heatwave and that’s exactly what we are seeing”?
@Paraic: read my comment again, I never said the climate wasn’t changing, it is and always has. The reasons for it are whats debatable and there is absolutely nothing anyone in Ireland can do to reverse it despite your ridiculous crusade!
@Daniel Dunne: Rubbish you think that burning millions of years of stored carbon oil gas in just 200 years has not changed our climate is utter nonsense.
@Dino: It’s not debatable. The science and debating was done decades ago, it came to the conclusion that man is the cause of the rapid climate change we are witnessing. The science is irrefutable. Only fools will still try to insist something is false that we already know for sure to be true. I mean you’ve got Daniel there asking if I should add the prediction that the Shannon basin will experience more and intense flooding to the “list of failed predictions”. Do you realise how utterly idiotic that is?
What else can you expect when you place an almost 100ft dam across the
the Shannon which then discharges within a couple miles of the sea, the
continued use of the ESB Hydro Station to generate 84 odd Megawatts
on the Shannon is no longer feasible or indeed viable as its output in
respect of the national load demand 4400 Mw, couple this with the systems
design which envisaged 6 turbines with a design flow of 600 Cm/s of which
only four were installed, yet the storage or design was not adjusted to
take account of the reduced discharge at 400 Cm/s, there is also the
issue of giving of permission almost in secret to the ESB in the mid 70′s
to further raise levels at the time of the Oil Crisis, how much has this
contributed to flooding, is the Shannon system and other Hydro Stations
being used as a spinning reserve to deal with wind generation flucuations
and for peaking morning and evening, the time has come to take the ESB
and the ir 95% shareholder the Government and never mind all this nonsense
about flood barriers
I think the problem is far bigger than the dam ~ @Clonagh Ri:
@Clonagh Ri: the dam has no impact on the shannon floodplain. If you looked at the river profile in detail you would see the height of the dam relative to the flooded areas. If it was an issue, the water would be twenty to thirty feet over the top of the dam.
The problem is that the channel between ree and derg can’t take the flood because it’s too flat. Tge water can only go sideways after heavy rain, across the flood plain.
The dam is an easy target for simplistic answers, but it isn’t the problem.
@Clonagh Ri: should be pulled down like other dams accross Europe as it is a barrier to fish migration.
Our salmon, eels and lampreys were nearly wipes out.
Castleconnel was the greatest salmon fishery in the world at one time
@Ciarán FitzGerald: but no impact on flooding
@John Mulligan: The system is dammed incrementally from Lough
Allen to Parteen and water is released in stages from one holding
basin to the next ,what is held back at the various basins as far as
Jamestown weir cannot be released until each stage is spilled and
released until it eventually reaches the Parteen Dam, from the late
1920′s and into the 30′s the ESB were given Statutory Authority by
Act and Statutory Order/Instrument to raise water levels and impuond
it, there is also an additional Instrument made in the Mid 70′s further
raising levels in response to ’73 Oil Crisis, all level raising has to be
referenced to the historic levels pertaining at the commencement of
the Shannon Navigation Works in the 1840′s, you simplistic assertion
that the Pateen Dam would have to be at the same level as the Jamestown Sluice is somewhat ridiculous, when in fact the system
is controlled in stages, as it stands the entire original project has
now to reassessed in light of current energy requirements,which
is of today 4400 Mw of which Ardnacrusha is just under 84 Mw, all
those affected need to take a class action against the Government
and the ESB for damages, what other Nation would allow one of
its largest rivers to put lives and property at risk for a project that
did fulfill an energy requirement initially but is longer feasible or
viable under the current conditions
In the 1600s they brought in a Dutch man to deal with a major problem on the Ouse and he supervised the construction of what’s known as the Ouse Wash.
Sometimes its best to look for a known expert in the field and the Dutch have all the people we need.
What we don’t have is the willingness of some State agencies to surrender their patch and maybe dont have the willingness of politicians to provide .the money.
Totally incorrect ~~ Dredging on a schedule would enable the the engineering and flood specialists to mitigate flooding in many areas ~~ Dredging must be a constant not an emergency operation ~~ Planting trees and flooding bogs would also be pertinent ~~ Stopping greedy politicians egos might help ~ Maybe !
@JP Pilibin: Don’t build houses beside/on flood plains!
@JP Pilibin:
If you “mitigate” flooding in one area, you create or exaserbate flooding in another. The dredging campaign is misinformed nonsense, the Healy Raes are behind it, that should be warning enough.
There’s a simple solution:
STOP BUILDING HOUSES ON FLOOD PLANES
jesus, use floodplanes to plant forests or something, not ever scrap of land needs to be developed, the population is sparse enough as it is.
That headline is totally wrong, Dr Mary Burke was on the Pat Kenny show yesterday and stated that dredging is not the solution in any form for the Shannon.
@Frank Carty: we had her visit us inishowen in the wake of the 2017 floods. She is an excellent authority figure on the issue of flooding and natural flood mamagment
If you build houses on a flood plane, expect floods.
If you take measures to stop flooding in a flood plane, you create flooding somewhere else.
Feel bad for the suckers who bough houses on a flood plane not knowing any better, but they should direct their anger at the local gombeens who allowed houses to be built on a flood plane, not “dem ‘uns up in Dublin ignoring us”.
Some of these flood planes are on maps from the middle ages, we have a serious problem with planning in Ireland where local gombeens have too much power, and civil engineers have too little.
All talk and excuses as usual. We should have thousands of years data on Ireland biggest river maybe even ask the locals instead of downloading data sets. The plan seems to be protect towns and industry with peace meal defences. Identify farmland to flood and refuse to dredge because some plants and tiny aminals may loose their home. Blocking rivers that feed into the Shannon further up so more farmland can flood.
Dredging will bring more activity maybe jobs. Build up banks to plant trees.
You would swear that councils along the Shannon are more interested in using it to dispose of human sewage than listening and acting on locals concern. Rural Ireland forgotton while Dublin gets a metro line.
Dredging the Shannon it brings back memories of years gone by it was always a big topic in the daily and more recently when it was mooted that some of the water would be piped to Dublin there was uproar how times have changed
@Sean Doheny: It’s not in constant flood you have to realise…the river can get very low in the summer months especially in a drought. Navigation gets very difficult.
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