22/03/2006
- The Environment Agency’s Board today, 22 March
2006, granted the first approval for the Humber
Flood Risk Management Strategy.
At its quarterly meeting in Middlesbrough
the Board agreed that development work should continue
on the 100-year £1 billion project, which
will provide a sustainable solution to managing
flood risk around the Humber Estuary.
Philip Winn, the Environment Agency’s
Humber Strategies Manager was delighted with the
news. “We’ve cleared the first hurdle as far as
this project is concerned. This approval is a fantastic
endorsement of all the hard work we have put in
to identifying the areas at risk and outlining possible
solutions to this.
“This is a long-term strategy
which addresses flood risk around the Humber Estuary
for the next 100 years, but that also ensures we
carefully protect the estuary’s valuable habitats
and applies the principles of sustainable management.
We will now be starting detailed work on the highest
priority schemes in order to increase protection
to the communities most at risk as soon as we can.”
Flood defence projects have to
gain many approvals before they are actually built.
Today’s approval will allow the project team to
forge ahead with plans for flood alleviation schemes
that need to be built in the next five years and
to develop the 100 year framework programme.
300,000 people live or work on
land currently protected by flood defences in and
around the Humber. Environment Agency officers estimate
that sea levels will rise by up to 0.3 metres in
the next 50 years, so there is a clear need to consider
long-term protection of communities and habitats
in this area.
At present there is adequate protection
around much of the estuary, but this project prepares
for the increased likelihood of defences being overwhelmed
as sea levels rise and as we experience increasingly
severe storms.
The strategy also addresses the
need to protect valuable habitat in the Humber Estuary.
All of the estuary currently is, or is proposed
to be, internationally protected. In particular,
mudflats provide important habitat for wading birds
such as golden plover, lapwing and redshank.
The Environment Agency project
team consulted on the draft strategy last year and
will now be able to start detailed development work
on the most urgent schemes.
