Monday, February 8, 2010

Flooding risk even after a £29 million defence project

Weston & Somerset Mercury (UK): Despite a £29million sea defence project in Weston, residents are being warned that coastal flooding cannot be prevented altogether. The Environment Agency has announced plans to increase flood protection to 200,000 homes and businesses in England and Wales by 2015.

The organisation has launched a 2010-2015 strategy to help protect people from climate change. Included in the plans is the sea defence work currently taking place in Weston. The defences, which are expected to protect 4,500 homes from the risk of coastal flooding, are just one of a handful of projects being organised around the country.

But at an annual London conference, the Environment Agency warned that more and more properties are facing an increasing risk of coastal erosion and river flooding due to climate change and population growth. The agency's director of flooding and coastal erosion risk management, Robert Runcie, said: "The agency plans to protect an additional 200,000 properties from coastal and flooding erosion by 2015….

Weston Shore, at the edge of a boatyard in the right and Ocean Village across the mouth of the Itchen, shot by Footprints, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

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