England on alert - the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) warns flooding from heavy rainfall could double in the next three decades

This is a wakeup call for England. The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) cautioned that many properties could face risk of flooding from heavy rainfall. This could double in the course of the next three decades and the government has to tackle the issue on priority. The NIC says hundreds of thousands homes and businesses are already in high danger of flooding from so-called "surface water flooding" from heavy rain. The situation is serious. Rains are intensifying due to climate change and is growing. Therefore, unmanaged developments risk putting many more properties at high risk of this sort of flooding by 2055. Hence, the government has to increase investment in relevant areas. Two of these are river pollution and drought. These have dominated public discussion about water recently. The commissioners say, "But we risk ignoring a problem that can literally drop out of the sky at any moment." The head of the Environment Agency warned a failure to adapt to climate breakdown will threaten all aspects of life in Britain. English properties at risk of flooding to double in next 30 years without urgent investment, government warned. Delays in action on adaptation would mean our children would have to bear the burden.

The nature of adaptations could be to plant trees to keep cities cooler in the face of heatwaves, or develop more heat-resilient crops. Incidentally, nature of flooding from heavy rain varies from place to place. Widespread flooding in London in July 2021 damaged more than 1,500 properties, as well as health infrastructure and public transport. Another issue is concreting of roads. Concrete increases the risk of flooding because it prevents rainwater from reaching natural drains like streams. Instead, the rainwater flows down the street and into gutters. The NIC calls for adequate investment over the next 30 years to tackle risks associated with heavy rainfall.

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The report follows a series of extreme weather events in recent years. It reveals an "extreme weakness at the centre of government." Moreover, the committee hauls up the ministers of "a severe dereliction of duty" and stresses that "even more severe weather - and consequent impacts - will be prevalent soon." These observations leads the experts to predict that high temperatures are likely to give rise to issues like sagging of electricity cables, softening of roads and increase in the frequency of flooding. These, in turn, might result in frequent failure of railway embankments. Chair of the Joint Committee, Labour MP Dame Margaret Beckett, said Rishi Sunak, the new Prime Minister “must pull all the strands of government together to mitigate against potential disasters… This government must finally recognise that prevention is better than cure and move on from their dangerously reactive approach to risk management."

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