communities cut off across central and southern England.

Thousands without fresh water as floods bring chaos

Audrey Gillan and Steven Morris
Monday July 23, 2007
The Guardian


An aerial view of Upton upon Severn in Worcestershire. Photograph: Stephen Hird/Reuters

More than 350,000 people are facing days without fresh water supplies and a clean-up operation lasting months as devastating floods this weekend left communities cut off across central and southern England.

Last night waters were still rising in several parts of the country as the Severn and Thames threatened to burst their banks in Gloucester and Oxford, bringing more chaos to a region where hundreds of people have been evacuated after downpours which began on Friday and swept the country over the weekend.

Today Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, will make an emergency statement to the Commons and Gordon Brown's first monthly press conference as prime minister is certain to be dominated by criticism about the speed of the response to the latest flooding. He is expected to visit flood affected areas this morning, though Downing Street declined to reveal exactly where he would go. In developments yesterday:

· More people were airlifted to safety in one of the RAF's biggest peacetime operations and the army distributed aid to thousands cut off by rising water in Upton upon Severn, Worcestershire and Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire;

· Eight severe flood warnings were in place overnight, including in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and parts of London, and a second peak in water levels was predicted for tonight;

· The government defended its handling of the crisis, but the chief executive of the Environment Agency, Lady Young, said it would cost £1bn a year to prevent further flooding, and predicted worsening conditions in future due to climate change;

· Severn Trent Water said 150,000 homes are without water in Gloucestershire and about 250,000 more residents of Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury could be without clean water for the next 72 hours after a treatment plant was flooded;

· The Red Cross was called in to help evacuate 20 patients from Tewkesbury hospital;

· Oxford and Gloucester were braced for further flooding from the Thames and the Severn. In Gloucester water levels were at 34 feet, just 12 inches below flood defences.

The government was facing criticism for being unprepared for the floods, which have devastated communities and led to more than 2,000 people spending the night in emergency shelters after almost two months of rain fell in one day on Friday. Forecasters predicted the downpour on Wednesday.

The Conservative leader, David Cameron, whose Witney constituency in Oxfordshire is one of those badly affected, said serious questions needed to be asked about Britain's flood defence systems. "People want answers," he said.

The Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, said: "It was known for some days that this was likely to happen. I think there'll be questions asked about the degree of preparedness there was to meet what is obviously a very, very dramatic outcome."

The Environment Agency defended its response amid claims that defences were not in place. Lady Young, its head, said it could not protect people against "unpredictable" rainfall and the onus was on local authorities to improve flood defences .

"The big challenge is for local authorities and their water companies to take a longer look, a 25-year look at the drainage systems in their cities and urban areas because clearly they are piecemeal over a number of years, insufficient for the number of rain events we have been seeing recently," she said.

The floods come less than a month after seven people were killed as swathes of northern England were devastated by water. In Hull, 20,000 homes were damaged and an estimated 7,000 people are still staying in hotels, emergency centres or with relatives and friends.

Doncaster saw 5,000 properties damaged, while Sheffield endured £30m worth of damage.

The government's civil emergencies committee Cobra met yesterday and ministers began to visit the parts of the country worst affected by the flooding.

Mr Benn said the emergency was not yet over. Visiting Worcester, he said residents should brace themselves for more flooding as further rain was predicted. Today, the rain could move further south and up to an inch is likely to fall on areas around the Thames.

He brushed off suggestions that there were not enough troops available to help deal with the crisis, insisting he had full confidence in the Environment Agency and that military help was available to local authorities and emergency services. There had been a cut in the agency's forward planning budget, he said, but capital expenditure was being increased from £600m to £800m by 2010-11.

People began panic-buying water in Gloucestershire yesterday. The town was cut off, with police using six boats to ferry people in and out, and the hospital was evacuated.

Police said car thieves and flood sight-seers were becoming a problem for the emergency services conducting rescue operations.

A West Mercia constabulary spokesman said many stranded vehicles had been broken into and urged motorists to collect them as soon as possible.

Shona Arora, director of public health for Gloucestershire, advised people to conserve water and not to panic buy.

She asked people not to take baths or try to clean up flood damage, as that would use up the water supply from the mains system. She also advised parents to stop their children from playing in floodwater.