Bright Blue’s report, In Deep Water? has featured in The Guardian. The article outlines the reports findings which reveal that the UK is not adequately prepared for the increasing risk posed by flooding as the climate changes.
Helen Jackson, Associate Fellow at Bright Blue and the report’s author, said:
“The disruption caused by Storm Arwen highlights the need to make our infrastructure resilient to extreme weather, and be more preventive and less reactive.
“Many towns and cities in the UK are seeing repeat episodes of flash flooding affecting households, businesses, and transport systems. We need to recognise this trend and do much more to ensure our urban drainage and sewer systems can cope with heavy rainfall as the climate changes. This should include limiting the spread of impermeable surfaces in our cities and ensuring basic measures like drain cleaning are not overlooked.”
The report called for the government to support and fund an ongoing programme of research to identify and monitor risks associated with extreme rainfall in urban areas. It also said government should conduct a civil resilience exercise for an extreme rainfall event in a major UK urban area, incorporating significant infrastructure failure.
Ryan Shorthouse, the Chief Executive of Bright Blue, said:
“Flooding is one of the most serious climate-related challenges that this country is facing and will continue to face as the climate changes further in the coming years.
“The impact of flooding is already being felt deeply in communities across the UK. The UK government can and must do much more to better improve the resilience of local communities, businesses, public services, and critical infrastructure to flooding.”
You can read the full article here, and our full report here
