![]() ![]() But no one in power seems interested in the causes all focus is on the outcomes.įor the past three years, Cumbria’s two most prominent MPs, Rory Stewart, now a minister at the environment department, and Tim Farron, leader of the Lib Dems, have denounced those who call for the better management of watersheds to prevent flooding. If you don’t hold it back in the fields, it will tumble into people’s homes instead. ![]() Once water is in the rivers, it has to go somewhere. There could be no better formula for disaster downstream. It would also permit them, with minimal oversight, to extract gravel from the riverbeds and to build culverts. In June 2014, in pursuit of its primary mission – appeasing the farming industry – the environment department proposed to deregulate dredging, allowing landowners to strip the structure and wildlife habitat out of ditches and rivers. But Cumbria’s hills are almost entirely treeless, and taxpayers, through the subsidy regime, fund farmers to keep them that way.Īll copies of this presentation have now been deleted from the web (we republish it above). Rain that percolates into the ground is released more slowly than rain that flashes off the surface. A study in mid-Wales suggests that rainwater’s infiltration rate into the soil is 67 times higher under trees than under sheep pasture. It would address the problem, literally and metaphorically, upstream. ![]() This means waiting until the wall of water arrives before seeking to contain it a perfect formula for disappointment.Ī rational policy would aim to prevent the flood from gathering in the first place. The government boasts that: “We are spending £3.2bn in flood management and defences over the course of this parliament – half a billion pounds more than in the previous parliament.” Yet almost all the money devoted to freshwater flood relief is being spent at the bottom of river catchments. ![]() Just as remarkable is the collective lack of interest in what happens when rain hits the ground. ![]()
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