A public talk on flooding in Galway will take place at 8pm on Tuesday April 14 in the Galway Bay Hotel, where Niall Murphy of the Green Party will introduce a number of expert speakers.
Dr Indiana Olbert from the College of Science and Engineering in University of Galway has reported on the impact of major storms in Galway and has studied nature based solutions. Ronan O'Reilly, senior executive engineer with Galway City Council, will discuss the Corrib go Costa project, which is the flood defence plan for the city. Peter Butler is chairperson of the An Taisce Galway planning committee. An Taisce has been making submissions on planning issues for several decades. Mr Butler has co-written planning submissions on proposed developments including the Galway Ring Road, the Galway City and Dublin Road BusConnects, the Galway Port Extension and the Galway Docklands.
Bye-election candidate Niall Murphy said: “Flood risk management is vital to Galway’s future. It is not just a case of saying one team can build flood defences and we are done. Flood risk feeds into planning and zoning decisions. Every extra building covers ground that previously soaked up the rain, so we need do make sure we provide alternative soakage, or our storm drains have to carry more water as the city expands. Tidal surges bring a very different threat, and require completely different prevention measures.
“At a more personal level, people need to think about flood risk when they are moving house, or in many cases they struggle to get flood insurance where they currently live.
“I organised this event to give people a chance to hear more about the flood threat due to climate change and the solutions that are possible”.
