Flooding "An Act of Bureaucaracy, Not An Act of God"
Fri., September 04, 2009. 13:30.
Serious flooding across the North and East of Scotland is a result of delay by local and national Government, Greens today argued, and the likelihood of future incidents of this sort could be reduced through better land management, sensitive reforestation and compliance with the EU's Water Environment Directive.
Robin Harper MSP said:
"All too often, Ministers would have us believe that flooding is unpredictable, unstoppable and nothing to do with policy decisions. The reality is that Ministers and local authorities alike have failed to act, and continue to permit building on flood plains. These floods are an act of bureaucracy, not an act of God. Worse still, their impact is increasingly compounded by climate change, in line with long-standing predictions that Scotland would get wetter as well as warmer.
"Local residents suffering through yet another devastating round of floods will rightly be asking two questions: why did this happen, and how can it be stopped in future? Once the waters have receded and the immediate effort to protect life and property is over, Ministers will have to answer these questions at last.
"If the Government in 1999 had instituted a programme of coordinated land management and soft engineering, a lot of the problems we are having now would not be occurring. We may have been one of the first European countries to put the European Water Environment Directive into law, but we are in danger of being one of the last to implement it in full. I call upon local authorities, land managers and government to act more closely together as a matter of urgency, in particular to finance and facilitate the use of natural flood plains like the area between Elgin and Lossiemouth, and to use increased afforestation in the upper regions of all our major river basins."
Notes
1. For an example, see the Environment Minister's comments here: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Environment/Water/Flooding/newsandevents
Contact the Scottish Greens' press team on 07909 933 074.