Clarence
Environment Centre, Winter
newsletter – 2022,
excerpt:
Who
could have predicted that?
They
have to be kidding!
The
overworked phrase, “who could have seen this coming”, has been
used by all levels of government to excuse the debacle which was the
response to the recent flooding event across the Northern Rivers, and has
been rightly ridiculed.
For
40 years, the world’s scientific community, through the UN, has
been warning us that the changing climate will generate more frequent
and more extreme weather events, and have begged the world’s governments
to take appropriate action, with little success.
The
failure of those governments to make meaningful attempts to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions is inexcusable. However, to fail to plan for
those forecast catastrophic weather events, verges on criminal neglect.
The recent flooding saw lives and property lost, businesses forced to
close, and rendered thousands homeless.
In
the Clarence Valley, the response to 4 decades of warnings about the
inevitability of increased flooding. has been zero, something that
even this latest disaster seems unlikely to change.
In
fact, Council’s first act when reviewing the cause of ponding in
some areas in Iluka, was to examine past rainfall data, leading to
the hardly surprising conclusion that: “The significant rainfall
has led to a saturated
catchment and high-water table, exacerbating the time taken for water
to disperse”.
Council’s
statement continues with: “There has been no event or combination
of events since records began that comes close to the rainfall totals
recorded at Yamba”, going on to say: “We need to be aware that
the most efficiently designed drainage systems are not built to cope
with rainfall totals equal to that recently experienced”.
Ponding problems in Iluka from recent rains will only worsen with the clearing of forested land and replacing it with roof-tops, concrete and bitumen
Having
had over 40 years to plan for just such an event, we have to ask, why
haven’t adequate drainage systems been designed, and required to be
installed in all new developments?
Alongside
one of Iluka’s ponding problem areas, a 140-lot subdivision is
currently converting 14ha of bushland into roofs, concrete and
bitumen, all combining to channel rainfall, at speed, through an
inadequate stormwater system, directly into those ponding hotspots.
The
above image was of the condition of that housing development after
the water had subsided. Laughingly advertised as “Birrigan Iluka
Beach”, despite being nowhere near the waterfront, it has already
changed water flows beginning with the removal of the forest which
has led to the unprecedented ponding, prompting this Facebook comment
(see right).
Council
should be taking its “Climate Emergency” declaration seriously,
and plan accordingly, but they aren’t, with multiple floodplain
developments underway or in the planning stages in Iluka and Yamba.
Interesting
time ahead!