pa.press.net
Friday, 30 October 2009

Climate change hits flood defences

Climate change hits flood defences

The report says flood defences in Wales cannot cope with environmental change.

pa.press.net

Flood defences in Wales cannot keep up with environmental change and people living in coastal communities may have to leave, according to a new report.

The study by the Auditor General for Wales, Jeremy Colman, calls for stronger leadership from the Assembly Government to manage the risks of erosion and tidal flooding.

Around 60% of people in Wales live in coastal areas and those at highest risk of flooding are: Kimnel Bay, Towyn to Llandudno in North Wales; Aberaeron, Aberystwyth, Tywyn and Borth in the west; and the Gwent Levels in the south.

It is estimated that flood risk is likely to increase up to 20-fold in the next century, and the cost of inland and coastal flood damage is set to rise from £70 million to £1.4 billion.

The report, Coastal Erosion and Tidal Flooding Risks in Wales, advises that severe storms will become more common as a result of climate change and sea levels are predicted to rise by around one metre over the next 100 years.

Mr Colman said: "Current flood defences can't keep pace with environmental change so we need to drastically rethink our approach to safeguarding the coastline by adopting a more risk-based approach.

"I hope the Assembly Government will take on my recommendations in their work with stakeholders and put in place a new risk-based approach which is sustainable into the next century."

Mr Colman said the current approach of building sea defences was expensive and unsustainable. Examination needed to be made, he said, of where sea defences were needed and where they were simply not worthwhile.

There are currently 415km of man-made defences along parts of the Welsh coast, worth £750 million, protecting around £8 billion of assets.

Mr Colman noted that the Assembly Government was calling for people living in coastal communities to acknowledge the threat of flooding and think about moving to safer areas. But he said progress had been slow on the Assembly's New Approaches Programme, which aims to bring together organisations with a stake in the coastline.