how to solve flood crisis

Custardpi · 04-01-2016 12:44PM

Given that so many towns are already built near rivers & on flood plains it's probably unrealistic to just move them. What could be done however is to map out which section of each town/area is likely to be flooded in the event of the local river overflowing. Then build as many highrise apartment buildings (30 stories or so) as are needed to accomodate the residents of those areas, only putting apartments above the 3rd floor. Offer affected residents financial incentives to move into the new buildings then bulldoze their old homes. This should take pressure off the floodplain & ensure that when a river does flood it won't be as serious for residents. There'll be some initial problems & a substantial investment needed at the start but I reckon that long term it's a fair solution.

snubbleste · 04-01-2016 12:44PM

Ban precipitation!

04-01-2016 12:45PM

Richard Hillman wrote: »

It's tough one. It would cost a hell of a lot of money to install permanent flood defences.

I am quite disappointed with the response to the floods. If there was a natural disaster in another country we would be inundated with charity colllections for the victim's. Where are the hotlines and collectors for this???

It's called the tax we pay that is meant to cover emergencies.

Kimbot · 04-01-2016 12:46PM

Put everything on stilts

lifeandtimes · 04-01-2016 12:51PM

Have a massive tea party...order in millions of kettles and billions of tea cups and teabags and drink it all away

tigerboon · 04-01-2016 12:55PM

topmanamillion wrote: »

The simple fact is we can't build defenses along the entire length of the river shannon (360km long)

The simplest defence would be a soil bank along both sides. The rivers in this country are never dredged. Buy a handful of dredgers, dredge the Shannon and lower the bed by a meter or two, use the dredged material to build up the banks by a meter or two, that's up to four meters extra capacity in the river channel. To handle extreme events, build an overflow channel/pipe direct to the sea/lakes. Cheaper than moving towns

BoJack Horseman · 04-01-2016 12:55PM

More trees...

Much much more trees...

04-01-2016 12:58PM

Ban gay marriage again. This is clearly God's wrath.

A Dub in Glasgo · 04-01-2016 12:59PM

What is the extent of flooded properties, is it estates or one off housing or whole towns? Did I read somewhere that there are about 200 properties flooded?

BoJack Horseman · 04-01-2016 01:01PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Ban gay marriage again. This is clearly God's wrath.

That is the UKIP position all right.

Del2005 · 04-01-2016 01:05PM

Designate areas of land that can be flooded instead of trying to stop the flooding, if necessary pay the private landowners compensation but state bodies shouldn't get a cent.

Flood defences don't work as plenty of towns in the UK have found out.

Trent Houseboat · 04-01-2016 01:05PM

wrote:

Custardpi The obvious solution, as every decent business person knows is not to see the floods as a crisis but rather an opportunity. For instance, instead of moaning about a bit of water in Enniscorthy why not embrace it & rebrand the town as "The Venice of South Eastern Ireland". This will save on expensive flood repairs (the water will be left there), while providing exciting potential for tourism.

Venniscorthy?

kierank01 · 04-01-2016 01:14PM

snubbleste wrote: »

Ban precipitation!

tax precipitation

KwackerJack · 04-01-2016 01:18PM

We should go back in time and change the way we destroyed and changed the land.....then we would have no issues with flooding

twowheelsonly · 04-01-2016 01:18PM

Dredging the rivers would be a good start.

Don't know how true it is but I read somewhere recently that the Shannon hadn't been dredged since the Brits left town?? If that's true it's crazy.

Some one of our overlords recently said that dredging wouldn't make enough of a difference to make it worthwhile. I call BS on that.. If you can dredge thousands and thousands of cubic metres from a riverbed then that's thousands and thousands of cubic metres that the water can flow into to ease the pressure on the land and floodplains.

When I was growing up the River Lee seemed to have a constant dredging program going on and floods were certainly a lot less frequent and a lot less widespread than now. They still happened, but they also drained off faster.

wil · 04-01-2016 01:20PM

Eireglades

Introduce alligators and expand the hovercraft to work scheme.

BattleCorp · 04-01-2016 01:32PM

That idea that the people of the Wesht don't like might work. That's the one where they propose to pump floodwater from the Shannon and store it in a reservoir in the midlands to help supply Dublin with water.

It would certainly help alleviate some of the flooding. Although given the volume of water coming down the flooded Shannon, it would want to be one hell of a big pipe.

Would the EU allow large scale dredging of the rivers? Impact on fish/wildlife etc.?

While flood defenses are good, even with an unlimited budget, we can't protect everywhere.

smash · 04-01-2016 01:37PM

BattleCorp wrote: »

While flood defenses are good, even with an unlimited budget, we can't protect everywhere.

Survival of the fittest! :pac:

syklops · 04-01-2016 01:46PM

Del2005 wrote: »

Designate areas of land that can be flooded instead of trying to stop the flooding, if necessary pay the private landowners compensation but state bodies shouldn't get a cent.
.

We have designated aeas of land hat can be flooded. Only people keep building houses on them.

smash · 04-01-2016 01:49PM

syklops wrote: »

We have designated aeas of land hat can be flooded. Only people keep building houses on them.

Great photo going around social media last week of a plot around 4ft under water with a sign sticking out saying "Planning permission approved for luxury housing development" or something like that.

P. Breathnach · 04-01-2016 01:53PM

twowheelsonly wrote: »

Dredging the rivers would be a good start....

Not in every case. If you dredge the upper reaches of a river, that gets water through to the lower reaches faster, and you might flood places downstream.

It's a delicate balancing act.

breakemall · 04-01-2016 01:55PM

I took this one in Athlone before Christmas, all ground floor apartments will come with a pool?

smash · 04-01-2016 01:59PM

breakemall wrote: »

I took this one in Athlone before Christmas, all ground floor apartments will come with a pool?

Hopefully there's no underground car park.

ScumLord · 04-01-2016 02:02PM

colossus-x wrote: »

Relocate all towns away from major rivers. Towns by rivers is a throwback to the an era when traders travelled by boat/river and congregated by a port or whatever. If we didn't build all our towns around them then we wouldn't be suffering so much.

It goes back much further than that. Humans could almost be described as river apes. We've lived beside rivers and spread throughout most continents by following rivers (Well, that's the theory now competing with the idea that we just followed the coasts).

I don't think moving away from rivers is going to help in Ireland, you can't really get all that far away from them and flooding can happen anywhere when it's raining. Irelands full of turlock's that can fill up and flood even if it's nowhere near a river.

twowheelsonly wrote: »

Dredging the rivers would be a good start.

How is dredging going to affect all the wildlife living in the river though?

breakemall · 04-01-2016 02:05PM

smash wrote: »

Hopefully there's no underground car park.

Should that not be underwater car park?

Maybe change the name from ATHLone to ATHLantis?

Whatever is done though will be little comfort for the ones under water now.

For Forks Sake · 04-01-2016 02:08PM

Custardpi wrote: »

The obvious solution, as every decent business person knows is not to see the floods as a crisis but rather an opportunity. For instance, instead of moaning about a bit of water in Enniscorthy why not embrace it & rebrand the town as "The Venice of South Eastern Ireland". This will save on expensive flood repairs (the water will be left there), while providing exciting potential for tourism.

I'm not even joking here, Monasterevin have already tried that... http://www.leinsterleader.ie/what-s-on/arts-culture-entertainment/monasterevin-venice-of-ireland-festival-set-for-july-1-5214142

ScumLord · 04-01-2016 02:15PM

If every house in the country owned a jet ski we'd welcome the floods.

Sam Kade · 04-01-2016 02:18PM

KwackerJack wrote: »

We should go back in time and change the way we destroyed and changed the land.....the we would have no issues with flooding

You mean cover the country in trees again, maybe we should also get people out of the country and restock it with brown bears and wolves like it used to be

jmayo · 04-01-2016 02:21PM

P. Breathnach wrote: »

Not in every case. If you dredge the upper reaches of a river, that gets water through to the lower reaches faster, and you might flood places downstream.

It's a delicate balancing act.

I think that is what happened further down the Barrow this year ?
Carlow had works carried out and shoved the problem further down river.
Graiguenamanagh got it really bad this year.

breakemall wrote: »

I took this one in Athlone before Christmas, all ground floor apartments will come with a pool?

I bet that is now no longer Sale Agreed.

Hammer89 · 04-01-2016 03:05PM

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

A big massive Chinese style reservour in the centre of the country might not be a bad idea, look for least populated area and use that.

You had me at a big massive Chinese. Let's eat away our problems.

how to solve flood crisis

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