ENGLISH FLOOD DISASTER

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26986, 11 March 1953, Page 11

ENGLISH FLOOD DISASTER

Government Inquiry

Instituted

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, March 9. The Government has appointed Viscount Waverley to be chairman of a committee to inquire into the recent floods on the east coast of England.

The committee will examine the causes of the floods and the possibility of their recurrence; consider what margin of safety in the sea defences would be reasonable and practicable, having regard to the estimated risk and cost; consider whether any further measures should be taken, by a system of warning or otherwise, to lessen the risk of loss of life and damage to property; and review the lessons to be learned from the disaster and the administrative and financial responsibilities of the various bodies concerned in providing and maintaining the sea defences. Announcing the appointment of the committee in the House of Lords, Lord Carrington, Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, said that the area inundated had been reduced to about 12,000 acres, compared with 150,000 to 175,000 acres at the height of the floods. Approximately 95 per cent, of the breaches had been closed.

Outlining the emergency measures the Government was instituting, he said that the defences along 1000 miles of coast would have to be restored and made strong. “In six or seven months work will have to be planned and done which normally would be spread oyer 10 to 15 years,” he said. “It is an immense task, but the Government is determined that nothing will stand in the way of achieving it. “The Government will have to consider whether, in the long run, more should be attempted,” said Lord Carrington. “Our immediate task is to do as much as possible to restore the sea defences before the autumn It is premature to estimate what the cost will be, but it will probably be between £8,000,000 and £10,000,000.”

IMPRESSIONS OF FARMJLOSSES “UNIFORM GREYNESS” OF FIELDS (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, March 9. The grey, woebegone aspect of devastated farmlands in Essex after the recent floods has been described by the agricultural correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian.” He says the water .now has receded from about three-quarters of the 41,000 acres inundated from the seaboard and network of estuaries, but not ail breaches have been stopped. An area of 2500 acres is still covered twice a day at high tide. Of the scene north of Southend, the correspondent says it is a picture of uniform greyness. “Grey are the waters of the incoming tide, grey the film of mud at* the edges, banked like a car race track, and with no visible dividing line from the creeping river,” says the correspondent. “The sky is grey as the water and mud; and again beyond the walls, all over acres which should be green with sprouting corn, is the uniform greyness of the smeared deposit from the floods which drowned them.”

In the whole of Essex, nearly 18,000 acres of the flooded farmland was arable, and of this about 7000 acres was down in winter corn. All this lies sodden and ruined.

Expressed in terms of bread, 5,000,000 loaves would have been lost had this been only average land, and had the damage been no more than of a year’s duration. But it cannot yet be said how long it may be before the land is restored’ to full production. Three years is the most optimistic estimate, and even then it is unlikely to bear full crops “To rush it into fresh tillage would be folly,” says the correspondent. “A big concentration of salt is at the top. It must be got rid of before it is turned in. Rain will help to do the job, but this is an area where the rainfall is the lowest in the country, averaging only about 20 inches in a year. ‘‘Gypsum may help; but for the moment, the official advice is to leave the land alone, except for surface drainage.” the correspondent says. “In the meantime, the farmer, sitting back and surveying the dismal fields without promise, naturally finds the recommended policy of masterly inaction tedious and galling. The Government has said it will accept responsibility for restoring the lana, but it will be a long, costly business, and it is not yet clear just how it is to'be done.”