Why we have water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink

EVERY farmer knows if you dig a drain you first have for figure out where the water is going to flow.

So it is important that when planning permission is given for houses that the water table depth is taken into consideration.

In many cases this was ignored and that is why new residents are so shocked to find themselves up to their knees in floodwater. In many cases their houses were built on flood plains. Should they sue the authorities for not doing their job? In the US this avenue of action would be a given.

Most people are busy getting on with their lives and expect the Government and the local authorities to look after the country in their interest, but that is not what has been happening.

Many objections by ordinary people have been ignored by An Bord Pleanála, which gave planning permission for huge housing estates where there was a history of flooding in the past.

It was the generosity of people in the various communities all over the country in the past few days that prevented the loss of life.

Much of Holland is below sea level, yet with constant innovation not only have they managed to stay “above water” but are busy reclaiming more land.

It seems to me little short of a miracle how a city as big as Amsterdam, which is built on numerous canals, deals with its sewage, etc. Are our engineers up to date on new technologies to deal with flooding? I don’t think so. It seems the attitude has been to leave well enough alone — that is why we are so ill prepared for the recent flooding.

We don’t need to invent jobs; there is work to be done and we need to start now. What we need is investment in drainage, good water systems, up-to-date sewage treatment plants and cleaning up our lakes and rivers.

Let us also reorganise our education system so that it best serves us in an era where climate change seems inevitable. As IFA president Padraig Walsh has said, proper drainage has not taken place over the past 40 years.

But this has as much to do with the value of land for housing and the fact that various governments failed to ensure monitoring of flood plains.

Nuala Nolan

24 Bowling Green

Galway