Working to weed out flood risk
6 July 2010
Work has begun to clear weed from a river in a market town near to the Lincolnshire/Cambridgeshire border.
The Environment Agency started cutting weeds on the River Welland this week, to reduce the risk of flooding to homes in Market Deeping.
Alec Ambridge-Richardson, Operations Delivery Team Leader, said: "It is important we keep water flowing to reduce flood risk. During warm weather like we are having now, water weeds can grow prolifically. However, too many weeds in our rivers and streams can create blockages and when we get heavy rainfall, this can hamper the water flow and increase the risk of flooding."
Weed cutting is timed to take place outside of the height of the bird nesting and fish spawning season. This helps to ensure that wildlife does not suffer as a result of works to reduce flood risk. Some weed in rivers is beneficial. It provides food, shelter and habitat for a range of aquatic and water-related wildlife.
Alec said: "Sometimes the risk of flooding to property is just too great and we have to carry out weed-cutting works. When this occurs, we carefully assess the risks to the natural environment and introduce safeguards, such as testing the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water, to manage this."
A further inspection of the river will take place in late summer to determine how much water weed is present and whether another weed-cut is necessary.
Details about where weed cutting is taking place and when can be found in the Operations Delivery maintenance programme. The maintenance programme can be viewed by visiting the Environment Agency website.