Flood prevention team has been formed in Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District

A team of officials has been set up within Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District to put in place measures to prevent future flooding incidents, the district’s monthly meeting was told after the flooding of a street in Carrick-on-Suir following recent heavy rains was highlighted. 

Carrick MD Director of Services Brian Beck told councillors the team that includes the senior roads engineer has met a number of times and identified short, medium and long term actions to prevent flooding. He  listed out a series of measure being taken. 

They include:  

1. The separation of storm and foul water systems in Carrick-on-Suir as part of the Irish Water works being carried out for the town’s regeneration scheme. The aim of this is to create capacity in the system so  all the flood waters don’t go into the town’s water treatment plant. 

2. A lot of silt has been found in water pipes during  CCTV investigations of Carrick-on-Suir’s foul and storm water drainage system and there is ongoing work to remove this silt. 

3. The council has also found that a lot of valves in the drainage system are not working, which is reducing capacity in the pipes.  

4. The council has a new computer system in place to monitor and predict flooding. 

5. It has purchased temporary generators and pumps that can be deployed to locations where there is  flooding.  

6. The council is also drawing up tender documents to employ consultants to look at long term flood management to protect Carrick-on-Suir in the case of a 100 year flood event. He indicated they would look at putting in place flood protection similar to what is in place in Clonmel. 

Mr Beck pointed out the OPW are paying for the flood prevention works while the council was doing the work. 

He made his comments at the June meeting of Carrick MD councillors in Carrick Town Hall last Thursday after Cllr David Dunne and Cllr Kieran Bourke highlighted the flooding of Mill Street in Carrick-on-Suir the previous Saturday morning, June 17 following heavy rainfall. Both councillors reiterated calls for a flooding emergency plan for their hometown and welcomed Mr Beck’s comments.  They told the meeting that one house  suffered minor damage in the incident when flood waters came through its front door. 

Cllr Bourke  pointed out that the flooding incident could have been avoided as sandbags supporting roadworks signage had covered road gullies. 

However, he pointed out that when the roadworks contractors were contacted they acted quickly and the flooding was cleared by 9am that day.  

Cllr Dunne said thhe council needed an emergency plan in place for such incidents as unfortunately these events are going to increase. 

He acknowledged the council is working on this and described Mr Beck’s comments outlining the work of the district’s flood prevention team as “very encouraging”. 

Cllr Bourke said the information given by Mr Beck at the meeting was all good news and requested that he and Cllr Dunne be included in the flood prevention team meeting due to their local knowledge in Carrick.  

He questioned why the person in charge of the flood pumps in Carrick-on-Suir was based in Clonmel. This meant they had to travel to the town anytime the pumps  didn’t work. 

He also complained that when you contacted the emergency number to report a flood you were put through to a call-centre, some of whose staff don’t know where Carrick is located.