The
Human Cost Of The June Floods In Britain
By Robert Stevens
16 July, 2007
WSWS.org
The
flooding disaster that struck villages, towns and cities all over Britain
in June has been met with callous indifference by the Labour government
of newly installed Prime Minister Gordon Brown and by the Environment
Agency.
The flooding was some of
the most severe in recorded memory. June was one of the wettest months
on record in the UK, with average rainfall across England of 140 mm.
Locations hit by the flooding included large areas of Northern Ireland
on June 12, North Yorkshire and the Midlands on June 15, and Yorkshire,
the Midlands, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire on June 25.
As the flood water is pumped
out and water levels recede, the human cost of this tragedy is emerging.
Seven people died and many more were injured. Within a day of floods
in Sheffield, more than 900 had been forced to live in emergency shelters
after being left stranded. An estimated 13,000 people in Sheffield were
left without electricity, some for days.
Thousands of people have
been left homeless after being forced to evacuate their homes at short
notice. More than two weeks after the events, an estimated 17,000 people
were homeless in Hull, north Humberside (out of a population of 249,100);
1,000 were homeless in Doncaster, South Yorkshire; and a further 1,000
were homeless in Sheffield.
The majority of these will
not be able to return to their houses for many months, if ever, as they
are unfit for human habitation due to sewage contamination. Thirty months
after floods hit Carlisle in northern England, for example, eleven families
have yet to move back into their homes.
In the latest floods, up
to 28,000 homes were severely affected or totally ruined, as were 6,800
businesses, affecting the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people.
One in five homes in Hull was damaged in the flooding, and 90 out of
its 105 schools suffered some damage. The damage to schools is estimated
to have cost £100 million.
In South Yorkshire, the floods
caused a major emergency after cracks were found in the walls of Ulley
reservoir, located four miles south of Rotherham. The reservoir contains
820 million litres (180 million gallons) of water.
Had this dam burst, it would
have caused even more devastation. It is also just 2.5 miles from Junction
33 of the M1 motorway—the major north-south route in Britain—and
a critical regional electricity substation that supplies much of Sheffield’s
electricity needs. As concerns grew that the reservoir walls were going
to be breached, three of the nearest villages were evacuated—Whiston,
Treeton and Catcliffe.
The Association of British
Insurers (ABI) said that the damage to business and property nationally
is estimated to stand at more than £1.5 billion and rising. Claims
from residents are set to reach £825 million, and those from businesses
up to £680 million. There have reportedly been 27,500 domestic
claims with an average value of £30,000, and 6,800 claims from
businesses averaging £100,000.
The Fire Brigades Union described
the rescue effort as the biggest in peacetime Britain. By June 28, more
than 600 casualties of the flooding had been recorded and fire fighters
had rescued 3,500 people across the UK.
Matt Wrack, the general secretary
of the Fire Brigades Union, criticised the non-response of the government
to the crisis. Despite Met Office weather forecasts warning of the danger
of widespread flooding, the government refused to put any additional
resources into the areas in advance to aid populations deemed to be
in the most danger.
The government response to
the crisis was firstly to ignore the severity of the problem. Residents
in many areas have stated that they were left to fend for themselves
for days before any meaningful rescue operation was launched.
The government has offered
a paltry £14 million relief package for areas affected. Of this,
£10 million is allocated to local councils for rebuilding, while
£3 million will go to repair roads and bridges. Just £1
million will go towards helping flood victims replace their lost possessions.
Hull Council leader Carl
Minns said, “Fourteen million ... won’t even scratch the
surface. We need future assurances that more money is on the way.”
Saying Hull had become a “forgotten city,” he added, “Help
us with a large injection of capital, otherwise this city will not recover.”
The government has so far
refused to put aside or pledge any more relief money.
Cuts in flood defence budgets
The devastating losses are
a direct result of the big business agenda of the Labour government.
Between 1997 and 1999, flood defence expenditure fell from £102.6
million to £75.1 million.
Due to continuous cuts in
its manpower and budget, the Environment Agency (EA) has not been able
to maintain flood defences to a level that is anywhere near adequate.
Some towns and cities have no major flood defences at all.
Sheffield was massively affected
as the River Don burst its banks. But the case for the city not having
any large-scale flood defences was explained by the EA chief executive,
Baroness Young, on the basis that it had not had “had a serious
flood for 150 years.”
In fact, there has been repeated
large-scale flooding in Sheffield, particularly over the past ten years,
affecting thousands of people. The area of Catcliffe in Sheffield was
badly flooded as recently as 2000 and was again severely flooded in
the latest disaster. After the 2000 floods, local barriers were built
only following demands by residents.
Just days prior to the latest
floods, parts of Sheffield, including Catcliffe, had been hit by severe
flash flooding. Residents were told once again by the authorities that
there was nothing to be concerned about and that the defences were more
than adequate.
These assurances proved to
be worthless, as more than 1,000 people were evacuated in the early
hours of June 25 after 300 homes in Catcliffe were flooded. Such was
the level of water that the local Plough public house was flooded nearly
to the top of its front entrance door, while a nearby post box was almost
entirely submerged.
A statement from Sheffield
City Council explained that the city is almost solely reliant on a system
of 19th century culverts as a flood defence system.
“Whilst flooding from
the larger main rivers obviously carries the most widespread threat,
Sheffield suffers regular flooding problems at many locations due to
lack of capacity and blockages in many of the smaller watercourses,
particularly with regard to the culverted lengths through urban development,”
it said.
The statement continued,
“Inevitably, culverts, many laid over 100 years ago, are inadequate
to take the peak flows generated, and debris can create blockages, especially
at culvert entrances. There are several other sources of flooding, both
foul- and surface-water related, which are regularly reported around
the City. These include inadequate sized or blocked drains and sewers,
surface water run-off, ground water springs, water supply leaks and
highway gully problems.”
The EA’s responsibility
for Sheffield falls within the remit of the Yorkshire Regional Flood
Defence Committee (YRDFC). The planned expenditure of the YRFDC for
2006-20007 is around £40 million, with less than one percent of
expenditure on flood defence schemes slated to be spent within Sheffield.
The situation in Hull is
even more perilous. Speaking to the Observer newspaper, Councillor Trevor
Larsen said, “More than 90 percent of Hull is built below sea
level. Huge housing estates have been built on marsh land, yet whenever
we have needed help from central government to improve things, we have
been neglected.”
Due to the budget cuts, much
of the EA’s monies has gone for “non specific maintenance,”
while spending on flood defences in areas deemed high priority has been
cut back. Figures published on June 14 by the National Audit Office
(NAO) revealed that in the northeast of England, 58 percent of the budget
was spent on non-specific maintenance, while only 24 percent went to
high priority protection. In the southwest of England, just 18 percent
of flood defences were in good condition.
The NAO report concluded
that 63 percent of flood defences were not properly maintained and that
in 54 percent of areas at high risk there was no guarantee that the
current defences would hold back rising waters.
This is compounded by the
fact many of the existing flood defence infrastructures are privately
owned and therefore the EA does not even have a central register of
the real state of all flood defences in the UK.
Within days of the NAO publishing
its findings, large parts of the country were under water rising up
to 10 feet in some areas.
This crisis is set to worsen
as the EA is facing budget cuts up to 2011. In August 2006, the EA’s
budget was slashed, with £14.9 million cut from flood defences
and £9 million from environmental protection. Last month it was
revealed that in Yorkshire alone six major flood defence schemes have
been shelved, including a £100 million flood defence scheme in
Leeds—like Sheffield one of the largest cities in Britain.
Many of those affected by
the floods have been the poorest working class people, including the
elderly. It is estimated that up to a fifth of homeowners affected will
receive nothing in the form of compensation, as they have no insurance
cover. Those that are insured will be penalised financially, as their
annual premiums are set rise by up to 30 percent because they live in
a flood risk area.
Cuts in the Environment Agency
flood defence budget have directly contributed to residents not being
able to take out insurance. Wherever there is more than a one in 75
annual chance of flooding, and there are no plans to build defences
in the next five years, insurance companies have no legal responsibility
to offer cover. A present, this means about 400,000 homes across the
country cannot be insured.
An estimated 5.5 million
people nationally (nearly 10 percent of the entire population) live
in houses built on flood plains.
The EA said bluntly, “Insurance
companies are a commercial animal, they are there to make money and
make a profit. Events such as the floods of Sheffield, Hull and Doncaster
affect their profits.”
Insurance companies are now
demanding that they receive data on new flood defence maps and planning,
as they expect it will reveal that up to one million high-risk homes
will be affected. This will be used to deny insurance to even more families.
The government has washed
its hands of any responsibility. Speaking in Sheffield, Baroness Young
said that “nothing” could have prevented the floods. “The
flood was five to seven feet higher than anything we’ve seen before
and was going to overwhelm any flood defences,” Young stated.
In reality, decisions on
which parts of the country are properly protected are made largely on
the grounds of economic interest. The Thames Barrier in London was built
in order to protect the financial and stock market area of the City
of London from flooding, and to ensure the economic stability of the
capital. The cost of that project was £534 million (£1.3
billion at 2001 prices). Since 1982, the barrier has been raised over
100 times and it is raised every month for testing.
According to one estimate,
made after a dredger accidentally crashed into one of the barriers in
1997, a flood in London would result in damage costs of around £13
billion.
This can be contrasted to
areas such as Catcliffe, Toll Bar and other working class areas, which
are seen as largely expendable by the government and Environment Agency.
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