Call to use nature in Cork flood defence

A CORK councillor is calling for consideration to be given to a nature-based solution to tackle extreme floods in Cork.

Independent councillor for East Cork, Liam Quaide, proposed the solution at a meeting of Cork County Council in County Hall on Monday.

He was speaking in response to floods that left many businesses and homeowners in Midleton and elsewhere devastated last week.

Mr Quaide described how the town of Pickering in North Yorkshire adopted nature-based flood defences after being refused a £20m flood defence scheme due to its limited population.

It subsequently introduced measures such as the development of “leaky dams”, comprising of logs and branches, and the planting of vegetation in efforts to slow down and trap rainfall.

The measures have since been replicated successfully in towns and villages across the UK.

“There has been a tremendous success with a nature-based project in the town of Pickering, North Yorkshire, which flooded four times between 1999 and 2007,” said Mr Quaide.

“The project changed land management practices around the town that slowed the flow of water downstream.

“The total cost was £2m, or one-10th of the cost of the original flood relief scheme.

“In case this sounds like frivolous green nonsense, the town of Pickering has remained dry in recent years while other towns in the region have been repeatedly flooded by increasingly severe rainfall, driven by climate change.”

Mr Quaide said an essential part of flood defences needs to involve working with nature.

“There needs to be an incorporation of land management changes and pursuit of nature-based solutions for the entire catchment as well as engineering measures,” he said.