London's mayor criticised on London flood risk management

Luke Walsh in edie.net: Boris Johnson needs to act on the 'serious risk' of flooding if London faces severe rainfall, a new report from the London Assembly says today (July 22). Regardless of the Thames Barrier, in the south east of the capital, the London Assembly's Environment Committee claim some street could flood from rain 'within minutes'.

In 'For a Rainy Day' the committee fear rain fall equal to that other parts of the country experienced in 2007 could flood roads within minutes and rivers soon after. According to the report 'lives could be lost' and damage to property could amount to 'tens of billions of pounds'.
Environment Committee deputy chair, Darren Johnson, said: "It is pure luck London has so far escaped the kind of flooding that devastated other parts of the country in 2007, and we know climate change makes severe rainstorms more likely in the future.

"To protect lives and help prevent extensive property damage, Londoners need to be better informed about flood risk and the mayor must lead on ensuring everything possible is done to protect people's homes and businesses." Mr Johnson went onto explain the capital is particularly susceptible to flooding because it is so built up and water quickly gets into drains and rivers....

A Thames River flood wall, part of the Estuary defences, shot by Nigel Chadwick, Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license