NSW climatic floods? Greens now violently in opposition to flood safety efforts – Watts with that?

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Michael Man may have accidentally started the destruction of hundreds of square miles of pristine protected wilderness in New South Wales by causing panic by telling everyone that climate change is making floods worse.

When the dike breaks

Some say the Warragamba Dam wall needs to be raised to prevent the devastating flooding in Sydney this week – but there is also a cost upstream.

By Michael Slezak and Penny Timms
Updated March 27, 2021, 9:44 am
Posted on March 27, 2021, 4:53 am

Almost 150 years ago, a stream of water streamed out of the Blue Mountains and filled western Sydney like a bathtub.

The flood rose in some areas to almost 20 meters, with the flood line still marked in some places.

…

This week was one of the worst ever seen.

…

Almost 100 years later, the Warragamba Dam was built.

It was never intended as a flood protection dam. The aim is to provide 80 percent of the drinking water supply in Sydney.

When not full, it can mitigate flooding by catching some of the rainwater that would otherwise flow into parts of west Sydney.

…

So the NSW government is pushing a radical plan – an idea that, in one form or another, goes back to at least the 1990s – to lift the dam’s wall between 14 and 17 meters.

It is said the move will and did protect life and property slowed the peak of the floods this week and likely saved some homes and businesses. Some experts disagree.

But in order to protect the residents of the floodplains, costs are incurred in advance.

With a higher dam wall, thousands of acres of unique bushland will be flooded as a World Heritage Site, and much of it will be badly damaged, according to government documents from the ABC.

…

Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-27/warragamba-dam-raising-to-save-flooding-cost-others/13226472

I don’t know if a higher wall on the dam will help prevent flooding. It is more likely that dam managers will use the greater capacity to improve the stability and resilience of the extended water supply in Sydney. For greens like Michael Mann, however, it was absurd to believe that all of their rhetoric about climate change and flooding would have no consequences.

Ordinary people act against perceived threats, and most people would prefer to protect their homes from flooding, even if it means the destruction of a few hundred square kilometers of protected wilderness.

4.8
4th
be right

Item rating

Like this:

To like Loading…

connected