June 12: Flooding issues not being dealt with

It is now four months since the King’s Island flood and, apart from the ring of white gravel bags around the Island, one might think that life within had returned to normal. That is almost the mood, I am told, of a majority of residents and for that at least we must be thankful. But a walk around as much of the Island perimeter as can be accessed will soon make clear that all is far from well.

I am not talking about the general condition of the place which remains unacceptable. I am talking about the state of the bank above the Thomond Weir and below the entrance to the Abbey River. The bank has collapsed under the weight of the gravel bags as the two reports I prepared at the request of King’s Island residents, 21 February and 10 April 2014, always warned would happen somewhere.

There are three main issues we have to deal with if we are to look the residents of King’s Island in the eye and say: “Some of you may be living in wretched circumstances but we have at least done everything to make all of you safe and to restore your way of life.”

First, flood defences. The Engineers who are busy filling in collapsed banks with expensive boulders must take advice from local people who know the river and urge a different approach. The engineers are working from the inside outwards and will eventually cause the Abbey to clog up: River-men want them to work from the outside in, using properly armoured defences. The latter has a minimal environmental cost. The former will have dreadful consequences in time.

Second, flood responses. In 2013, the Department of the Environment issued a first-class document entitled a ‘Guide to Flood Emergencies’. But, based on two quite separate river emergencies here in Limerick (one of them the flood and both of them within the last eight months), I see no evidence that improved co-ordination and management practices have been implemented. Put bluntly, I believe we are as unprepared today for effective river-based responses as the evidence proves we were on the morning of February 1.

And, third, flood compensation. This is a thorny problem which simply will not go away. The belief continues among some King’s Islanders that house-owners are not being treated in the same way that Council tenants are. As long as there are people in King’s Island who will stand up and say: “I am a case in point”, assertions to the contrary are difficult to believe and will lead only to the alienation warned about in ‘Guide to Flood Emergencies’.

I have done my best to keep these three issues within the focus of the relevant departments and I realise that other people are doing their best, too. But we do all need urgently – before the increasingly unpredictable autumn and winter weather returns – to start a serious, transparent and collective discussion about precisely what happened, and where, when the water came into the Island on February 1; and what has to be done now, with the available resources, to recover the situation and to defend against the next, inevitable occurrence.

This is not a discussion for solely public authority behind closed doors because it is abundantly clear that the people in authority are not river people. I have yet to see anything to persuade me that they understand that Limerick sits astride the most dangerous river in Ireland and is just as vulnerable to combinations of extreme conditions now as it was last year.

Martin Kay

Lough Gur, co limerick