Bureaucracy prevents home owners from draining land to alleviate flooding

If there was a recurrence of the 2009 rainfall in County Galway, new rules would prohibit local communities from implementing emergency relief programmes to prevent houses being flooded.

In fact before opening a drain to take flood waters away, they would have to apply to Galway County Council for planning permission and might even have to submit an environmental impact assessment.

These are among the implications of new proposals that will require farmers to apply for planning permission to carry out land reclamation, the removal of field boundaries and cleaning out drains or opening new ones.

In November 2009 when there was extensive flooding in the Abbeyknockmoy area, locals acted quickly to open up an extensive drain to remove the water to a local river – saving several houses in the process.

But if new rules, being spearheaded by the European Union, are implemented then such emergency works would not be allowed without going through the planning and environmental process – a process that could take months.

Thousands of acres of land in County Galway was under water almost 20 months ago there were various initiatives put in place to release water to prevent houses being flooded but the proposed new guidelines would prevent this from happening.

See full story in this week's Connacht Tribune.