Flooding in Britain; what needs to be done

British readers of a certain age might just remember a radio personality called Ralph Whiteman who used to argue that the answer lies in the soil. It became something of a national joke, being taken up in a comedy programme, Beyond Our Ken, one of whose characters used it as catch phrase. But to some extent this is true. When we see rivers silting up and overflowing, and see them running reddish brown in flood water, it is farmers' soil that is being washed down. Thus we are losing soil at the same time as being flooded.

To some extent this is inevitable, but if the soil is being lost then it is a good idea to put it back. Thus dredging the rivers would be a double advantage. The river is deepened and the soil is returned to the land.

But there is more to the issue than this simple solution. There has been exacerbated loss in several areas. Some of this soil loss is due to the cutting down of hedgerows and the loss of tree cover in certain areas. American readers might have an image of Britain as a place full of charming fields surrounded by hedges that have been there for centuries, and to a great extent they would be correct in thinking this, but some farmers grubbed up hedges to expand the area of land for growing crops. But there were consequences! The hedges maintained the soil in the fields. as the roots served to bind soil together, and they impeded wind erosion that is always a problem in a windy island such as ours. As soil holds water, thinning soil holds less water than it used to before it thinned. Therefore we get quicker run off.A key element of the solution is:  restore hedges and deepen soil across the land! Soil can be deepened by adding organic material, such as manure, compost and leaf mould to it, rather than exclusively relying on fertiliser.

Yet some of the problem is exacerbated by the fact that in some areas farmers have switched from grass to the very profitable maize. While maize might be something of a surprising crop to grow in a chilly island, it grows well in south western parts, the flooded areas, and even further north it can be grown as cattle feed. But maize roots do not hold water as well as grass roots do, so as farmers have grown maize they have inadvertently worsened the flooding.The government has made it easier for farmers to use European Union farm subsidies, as it has stopped making requirements about how they will be spent. If the government required farmers to earn their subsidies,  by taking flood prevention measures, such as growing grass nearer to floodable rivers, where appropriate, then we might make progress in flood prevention.

To some extent this is correct. Rain falls on mountains and flows downhill, so keeping it uphill for a longer time is a very important flood prevention technique. One way of doing this is preserving peat bogs. There are several areas of the British highland regions that are covered with deep peat, and some are at the sources of major rivers. One is Plynlimon, the highland from which the Severn, Britain's longest river, flows; another is the Pennine hills, which divide northern England. Peat retains great amounts of water,as it acts like  giant sponge,  so preserving peat and ensuring that it retains water is an important method of preventing flooding downstream. Abstaining from peat extraction for horticultural purposes [and finding alternatives] is a vital part of the flood prevention strategy..

Upland farmers have been encouraged to create damns. These are small scale damns in streams, made by blocking them with logs. This process slows down water flow and therefore means that downstream there is less flood water.

In addition, one of the most important strategies in flood prevention is the re-forestation of hillsides. Trees are one of the best water retention strategies that we have.  Their root systems, huge networks of spreading roots and rootlets, along with the fungal mycelia that live symbiotically  with them,  hold the soil that retains water, and also they suck up much water as part of their growth process.  An economic emphasis on upland forestry is a vitally important new strategy for the United Kingdom. The natural flora of Britain is forest, and so left to itself much of Britain would revert to forest if humans were not active in adapting the environment. Trees, therefore, grow naturally in Britain, particularly  deciduous ones, and therefore reforestation would not be a dificult strategy.They also suck up thousands of gallons of water and absorb carbon dioxide. so tree are a winner on three counts

To a great extent the problems were predictable. Farmers had been advising the Environment Agency  and the government that the rivers needed to be dredged. They last did so six months ago, to no avail. The government was set on listening to "experts" who advised that it was not a long term solution. Of course dredging is not long term, as it needs to be regularly done. But it would help.The reliance on "experts" has been a major British problem. The views of ordinary people are overlooked in favour of professional, expert opinion. But how often is such opinion wrong, often because it factors out of the situation the interests and/or views of ordinary folk? I am not saying that we should stop listening to experts, but that government should do more to listen to ordinary people who have to live with their decisions. 

The experts of the Environment Agency say that they were tied by Treasury rules that specify value for money be considered before launching a project. But these rules need amending, as their value for money criterion always favours towns over country areas, which finish up being totally overlooked. There is a  case for prioritizing towns, but a country district neglected one year should move up the priority rankings as soon as possible.

Britain should be prepared to raise the emergency taxes required for special protection measures. We raised extra taxes in the crisis of wartime, and now, as we are in a crisis with flooding, we need extra taxes again. Unfortunately the government is not keen on tax rises for the rich  though it has helped the poor with lower taxation, thanks mainly to the Liberal Democrats, who are in coalition with the Conservatives, but powerful right wing influences in the dominant Conservative party dislike taxing rich people, they would prefer that the tax burden fell on the poor. So we are not raising the tax that we need to raise.However, the prime minister has promised to spend what is necessary to resolve the flood problems, but will it be taken from extra tax or from other important areas of public spending. I am not confident that it will be from extras