As many of you will be aware, South & East Belfast as well as parts of southern County Down have suffered at the hands of the wettest summer on record. Due to an underfunded infrastructure, and a poorly managed Department of Regional Development, hundreds of families across Belfast were hit by flash floods and as such, many lost their homes, their businesses and their faith in local Government.
I welcome the news that the NI Executive is releasing £10 million to improve flooding defences and infrastructure in East Belfast to prevent this happening again. It must be said that the response of the local Councillors, organisations and voluntary organisations that pitched in to aid families with sand bags, cleaning water out of properties and assisting in the relief all deserve to be commended for their efforts.
I welcome the news that the NI Executive is releasing £10 million to improve flooding defences and infrastructure in East Belfast to prevent this happening again. It must be said that the response of the local Councillors, organisations and voluntary organisations that pitched in to aid families with sand bags, cleaning water out of properties and assisting in the relief all deserve to be commended for their efforts.
The Alliance Party, along with other parties, worked hard over the 48 hours of flooding to ensure that as many people as possible were aware of where to secure sandbags, aquapacks, shelter and shoring up flood barriers to protect property.
However this is a clear sign that the public, and local Government, need to realise that the infrastructure that currently exists is unable to handle rainfall of this magnitude. It is up to Regional Development Minister Danny Kennedy to secure investment in NI Water and existing irrigation systems to ensure that this doesn't happen again, and if it does, that we can handle it.
"The Executive has announced a series of measures aimed at mitigating the impact of flooding.
~ Thursday, 5 July 2012
~ Thursday, 5 July 2012
Projects costing more than £10 million are being accelerated to improve infrastructure at Sicily Park in South Belfast, along the Loop River in East Belfast and in Cushendall.
A major upgrade is also planned for the Flooding Incident Line call centre to ensure more calls can be handled.
The Executive also agreed that the Government’s Performance and Efficiency Delivery Unit (PEDU) will carry out a thorough review of the response to recent flooding incidents.
PEDU has been tasked to make recommendations to improve co-ordination and efficiency across all government agencies."
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