Issued : Wednesday 2 March, 2011

Three hundred expert scientists, policy-makers, economists and business people gathered at 2011’s Connecting Water Resources Conference in Ottawa, Canada on Monday have claimed that one in 100 year flood disasters could now happen as frequently as every other decade. This places a new urgency on the much promised Flood Prevention Works for Bandon.

Local Councillor for Bandon, Gearóid Buckley has renewed his call for the flood relief works to be carried out immediately.

He said, ‘It is clear that Cork County Council’s estimate that the flood event of November 2009 is a one in one hundred year event is incorrect. January 7th last proved that this theory is false as Bandon, once again, found itself at the mercy of Mother Nature.

‘International experts now believe that flood events, on the scale of November 2009, are now likely to occur five times more often. Bandon cannot sustain a repeat of 2009 once every twenty years.

‘The new Government needs to prioritise Flood Works for towns such as Bandon, Clonakilty & Skibbereen within their new programme for government. Safeguarding our communities needs to be the new Government’s first objective.

‘Speakers at this Conference also highlighted that there are a range of low cost flood prevention measures which can be implemented immediately. I will be raising these ideas at this months meeting of Bandon Town Council. One such idea is using low-lying land as intentional flooding areas, this practice worked very well in Clonakilty in 2009.

‘We need to get serious and start planning for the future. Mother nature will not wait.’