Engineers warn of watery Wharf

A study by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers has warned that the time has come to start preparing our homes for flooding, rather than holding out in the vain hope that the waters can be kept at bay.

The report, Climate Change: Adapting To The Inevitable claims that mankind is producing carbon emissions at a rate large enough to raise the earth’s temperature by up to 8C. This would cause large ice masses to melt, raising sea levels and turning Canary Wharf into the financial metropolis of Atlantis. The report says that the sea levels could rise 7m by the year 3000.

While east London is familiar with warnings of imminent sogginess, from Christian Aid’s recent campaign to ITV drama Flood, the institution’s director of engineering Dr Colin Brown muses that it may now be time to start waterproofing.

He said: “Ever since 1990 the world’s emissions have gone up. We realised this is an issue a long time ago, but we’re not making any progress towards mitigating carbon emissions.

“We spend £600million a year on flood defences. If we were to sacrifice some of this area to the sea, we may save £200million to push into research and development.

“This has not gone down very well in low-lying areas, but if you’re going to continue to build on them, you’ve got to do so knowing they’re going to be underwater for some time each year.

“The Government is a little too focused on mitigation. As soon as we mention the word ‘adaptation’, we’re giving up.

“When they see bizarre houses on stilts, it could act as a wake-up call to avoid doing things to worsen the flooding of the planet.�

Dr Brown advocates the use of non-absorbent building substances such as concrete and the aforementioned roll-out of stilts. He believes this should be considered in conjunction with carbon-reducing schemes such as the production of low-carbon cars and the recycling of heat from power stations to warm homes.

He disagrees with the Government’s drive to base many extra houses in the low-lying Thames Gateway area to meet the region’s demand for homes.

He said: “You’ve got to question the logic of that. We’ve got to find a way to move people out of this and gradually give the area up to the rising sea levels. It’s not tenable continually to protect the house right next to a cliff or on a flood plain just because it’s been there for years.�

The Government’s Communities And Local Government department, which is involved with work in the Gateway, argued that “tough new planning rules� have been put in place to ensure authorities are more aware of flooding risks when making planning decisions. But it laid the responsibility for such decisions at the door of the “democratically accountable local planning authority�.

The Environment Agency, which operates the Thames Barrier, is currently working on a long-term plan to update flood prevention, dubbed the Thames Estuary 2100 project.

But many riverside residents, such as Trinity Buoy Wharf’s Andrew Williams, concede that prevention may not be enough on its own.

Andrew, managing director of sustainable events firm Seventeen Events, said: “We’re already at the state where there’s definitely going to be an effect. It’s sticking your head in the sand to say adaptation is something to be thinking about.

“I’d want us to stay as loyal as we could to our local area, even if that meant moving into a floating house or one on stilts.�