The terrible damage and loss of the November floods has lead to an understandable call for immediate flood defence. However water needs to go somewhere. Every pond or floodplain filled with earth, waste, buildings, every new barrier to flood waters leads to a higher flood risk somewhere else. Channelled rivers flow faster, carry huge silt loads and heavy objects which cause more damage.
Other countries such as the Netherlands and UK have embarked on major setback and wetland restoration for more natural, cost effective flood management. The same schemes also improve water quality and ecology. It is most urgent that we review our policy, change our laws and carry out individual action to make us more flood resilient.
Coastwatch is calling for: A wetland policy of ‘No more net wetland loss – in quality or quantity’. This is already stated in the Ramsar World Wetland Convention which Ireland signed decades ago. That nees to be translated into clear messages: ‘Ponds, wetlands, barrels are in. as they soak up water. Tarmac and concrete drives are out’, as they cause problems.
- A review of our first flood policy, with more emphases on wetland restoration to accommodate flood waters and regain other wetland services – such as restoring fish nurseries. It must also address the serious problems of dune loss due to water caught between hinterland and dune.
- Changes in law are overdue. We need:-
urgent amendment to the 2009 planning bill which still exempts wetland drainage from planning permission. Such an amendment was tabled by Trevor Sargent TD in his wetland bill which passed first stage in 2002, but has hibernated since.
The Land Reclamation Act 1949 belongs in Davy Jones’s Locker. Its place should be taken by a Wetland Protection, Restoration and Wise Use Law. Wetland users, potential abusers, managers and law enforcers need clarity.
Whether in a new act or as amendments to present legislation, any unavoidable wetland loss, must be compensated by wetland creation in quality and quantity.
Authorities and courts must be obliged to seek restoration of illegal wetland infill. - Finance: The EU rural development money and axed REPS 4 funds need to be targeted at wetland restoration and enhancement of natural flood retention features. E.g. farm level pond excavations, planting of wetland vegetation, restoration of flood plains and significant farm level incentives to allow some land to flood with adequate provision for stock safety.While a ‘Sealer tax’ on impervious surface (drives, car parks) acts as incentive for change.
- Voluntary action similar to that helping flood victims now, is needed to plan our adaptation to future flood events. Millions of small adjustments are needed.
We need individual home owners, schools, offices, farms to look at their own back yard – can it hold more water for slow release?
A massive voluntary spring planting effort of vegetation suitable for the position ands job it is to do – like willow which soaks up and slows down water along streams would already yield some results by summer 2010.
Further Information:
Karin Dubsky Coastwatch national coordinator and Ramsar Convention National NGO focal point kdub...@coastwatch.org Tel: This weekend at 053 94 25178 (mob 086 8111 684 active again on Mon)
Coastwatch, TCD, Dublin 2
Context:
Ireland has ‘lost’ – that is infilled, burnt and drained - 1000s of hectares of wetlands amplifying our flood risk all the time. People are experiencing such devastation, that everyone agrees that urgent measures are needed.
We have examples of large reedbeds – the flood water overflow safety net, used by various nesting birds turned into grass fields. Typically the spoil from drainage channels is used to make a berm around the reclaimed fields to keep the water out. We have marsh lands turned into air strips We have drainage followed by planning permission a year later as now the land is no longer liable to flooding. As a result of wetland loss, the streams cannot unload flood water sediment load and silt up. Policy, law and even grants have facilitated this. We urgently need planned restoration that is wetland quality and quantity.
However as most flood waters begin to recede the calls and promises are for more flood defences and dredging of rivers are much louder. Now that the country is full of idle diggers and everyone fears water, wetland loss will continue – only with more sub threshold projects.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in Copenhagen will incl wetlands and their role in mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
The Ramsar Convention has excellent policy, which we signed up to but are largely ignoring. see www.ramsar.org and new climate change wetland briefing note http://www.ramsar.org/pdf/strp/strp_briefing_climate_2009_e.pdf
The new planning Bill is going through the Senate. We had thought that it would incorporate the 2002 amendments as then tabled by Trevor Sargent TD – see http://www.oireachtas.ie/documents/bills28/bills/2002/2802/b2802d.pdf
and thus bring all ‘land reclamation’ especially drainage of estuarine marsh and callows into the planning act. However this did not happen. On asking the DoE for reasons, we were told of plans to amend Part 3 of Schedule 2 of the 2001 Regulations (Exempted Development – Rural) to provide that Class 11 (Land Reclamation) shall not apply to any development where the development involves an area in excess of revised EIA thresholds.
The difficulties we see with exempting sub threshold wetland loss from planning permission include:
- It gives the message that a little drainage is benign (or beneficial if you read the Land reclamation act)
- Wetland goods and services are unlikely to be adequately assessed when you don’t need planning permission. Who ensures the decision is based on adequate information? .
- Cumulative impact cannot be managed. How would you check cumulative impact when 12 land owners are each doing their own bit of drainage (or infill for that matter) in the same estuary but different local authorities – each in his own time which is unknown to the next? We have no coastal zone management or water framework directive central nodes which would have an overview. Cumulative impact would be noted after the flood event.
- A court challenge to sub threhold infill on the grounds of wetland value may well find the judge disagreeing. Only months ago a judge decide the developer who infilled a river floodplain in Rosslare had done his damage already. So as wildlife must be dead or have adjusted the infill could stay in place. A several hundred euro fine was enough.
