Foscari - Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Informatica e Statistica

I can understand their surprise, because this country is famous for its wetness. Rain is our national
weather. Snow can cause us problems, yes, and very hot weather, like last summer, causes difficulties,
too – but rain? With our wide experience, surely we should lead the world in rain management.
Unfortunately not. Thousands of people had to leave their homes over the weekend, and thousands
more are still trapped inside their houses. Some towns in the south had floods of up to five metres. In
the north of England, some people still can’t go home after last month’s floods, which killed 8 people.
Everyone is asking how such short rainstorms – just one hour in London, slightly longer in other places
– could have such terrible results.
In fact, the answer is partly because it all happened so quickly. Brize Norton in Oxfordshire had
121.2mm of rain between midnight Thursday and 5pm Friday – a sixth of what it would expect for the
whole year. South Yorkshire got a month’s worth of rain on June 25. It has been raining for weeks
now, “and the ground is very wet, so immediately you get rainfall, you get runoff”, explains professor
Adrian Saul, of Sheffield University.
It isn’t just that the ground cannot absorb so much so fast – drainage systems get too full, too. “When
you design a system you have to plan for possible dangers, and generally the plans are good enough to
protect our communities,” says Saul. “It’s very lucky that the Victorians built the systems as big as they
did. Especially in London, they thought the city would get bigger, and that has protected London until
now.” But London’s population is now four times as big – and last Friday, the sewers couldn’t handle
so much water.
“Our sewers are not designed to have so much water flowing through them,” says Nicola Savage, a
spokeswoman for Thames Water. And they are not designed for the way we use them nowadays. “We
each, personally, use much more water than ever before. Also, the public often use the sewers as a
rubbish bin,” Savage adds. “People put things like babies’ nappies down the toilet. And also, we need
to encourage people not to pour fat and oil down the sink. The sewers were never designed to handle
this kind of thing.”
Saul is also investigating how farmers can control the flow of water off land. If Farmers plough across
hills, not down them, there will be less runoff. And carefully placed trees can help stop flooding. Also,
the more animals walk over a piece of land, the harder the ground becomes, and the less water it can
absorb. Then, plants can’t grow well, and there won’t be enough food. And if farm animals get no
drinking water for 48 hours, thousands will die, and meat will cost more.
Scientists are also investigating how each of us can help reduce a problem that, in fact, we have helped
create: by extending our houses, paving driveways, and building car parks. All this takes away soft
ground that could absorb water, and adds to the runoff into drains and rivers. And we should collect
any water that runs off the house instead of letting it go into the sewerage system. We can use rainwater
to flush toilets or run washing machines. Every little helps.
For although this month’s weather in Britain has been very unusual, that may happen more, and more
often, as our climate changes. Today people in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire are having to leave
their houses. Tomorrow, next month, next year – who knows?
© Guardian News & Media 2007
First published in The Guardian, 24/07/07
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First, read the text quickly to find the words and numbers in the box below. Underline them in
the text.
June 25
five metres
eight people
10