With river levels remaining high in the wake of Storm Christoph and subsequent snowfall, it has emerged that  swathes of England’s vital flood defences are ‘almost useless’.

An investigation by Unearthed found that thousands of England’s vital flood defences were in such a state of ruin last year they would fail to protect communities from extreme weather. More than 3,400 of England’s “high consequence” flood assets, defined as those where there is a high risk to life and property if they fail, were judged by the Environment Agency to be in such a bad condition they were almost useless. This means that more than one in 20 of the country’s crucial flood defences were in disrepair in 2019-20, the highest proportion in years. This rose to nearly one in 10 in the regions battered by Storm Christoph last week.

Also covered in the Guardian.

Meanwhile, research from the University of York and the Centre for Mental Health found people who have been flooded in the UK are nine times more likely to experience long-term mental health problems than the general population. PTSD was the most commonly reported condition, with a prevalence rate of between 7.06% and 43.7%. Anxiety and depression were also common. The report, which examined studies on flooding events in the UK from 1968 to 2016, found people affected by flooding experienced anxiety during heavy rain even years after being flooded.

Read more here.

No Comment

Comments are closed.