Councillors frustrated at unkept local rivers
The long-awaited flood works in Tallow will take two years. Stock Image
Local councillors have insisted that rivers in the Westport Belmullet Municipal District must be cleaned of debris and fallen trees in order to protect land and properties as flood season approaches. However, at a special meeting to consider matters in relation to rivers in the Westport Belmullet Municipal District, it was pointed out by an expert panel that as a result of ongoing climate change, flood mitigation efforts must happen in general catchment areas from top to bottom, using targeted interventions and a balanced approach. It was also suggested that farmers who allow interventions on their land should be rewarded financially where the public elsewhere are beneficiaries.
In an online presentation to the meeting held in Belmullet Civic Offices on Wednesday last, Professor of Geography at Trinity College, Mary Bourke, outlined a series of nature-based approaches to flooding in rural catchments, highlighting examples of peatland and agricultural land restoration, afforestation, drainage and de-intensification along a river’s route as measures that could harness a steady water flow from uplands to lowlands.
The geography professor also said the thinking has to stop in order to consider everyone in a catchment, as fixing one point can create a problem elsewhere and “sending waters more quickly downstream is not something we can do anymore, it is just not fair to other people.”
The detailed presentation ran for over fifteen minutes and while it was welcomed by MD members, local councillors just wanted to know was Mayo County Council planning to clear the debris and fallen trees from local rivers or not, stating that they are causing land to flood and putting residents in fear of their houses being flooded.
Cllr John O’Malley expressed concerns about farmland higher up having to be flooded as part of control works and said the Mayour river through Kilmeena and over to Buckfield needed to be cleaned because “Even a trout would not get up or down it now and the wild duck are no longer there either because they can’t swim in it and can hardly walk in it.” He added that flooding was so bad in parts of the catchment that septic tanks were overflowing and polluting the river.
Cllr Chris Maxwell charged: “I did not hear one word mentioned of opening up our rivers that are choked to the gills with silt, soil and everything. In Carrowniskey, the people want the mouth of the river opened. The burning question is to clear the river and if you do that, you and your studies and research will be welcome in this area.”
Cllr Brendan Mulroy said that heretofore, neighbours in a approach would clean out drains so that water would flow into the sea, adding that flooding had not been an issue at all except in the last ten years.
Pointing out that the two sides were “a long way apart”, Cathaoirleach Cllr Peter Flynn asked: “How do we bring this together?”, to which Cllr Chris Maxwell interjected: “Will the bushes be cut or not? It’s action now we need. Someone has to make a decision so I am making one today, you have my permission to cut the bushes.”
Following further discussion, it was revealed that no cleaning action of rivers is planned. However, members were advised that an approach of carrying out studies and assessments of local rivers and catchments and producing findings that could be used to apply for funding to alleviate flooding, might provide a way forward.
