Flood management must improve

A team of 15 experts from the Netherlands has been inspecting the flood damage from Storm Daniel that hit the region of Thessaly early in September and will submit recommendations to limit the damage from similar events in the future.

So far, they have noted the lack of action to clear debris clogging dams and rivers and, on the organizational front, the many overlapping local, regional and central government bodies that hinder a coordinated response.

Miltiadis Gkouzouris, the head of the “fact-finding mission,” as he calls it, is the CEO of Dutch agricultural consultancy HVA International, which has existed for almost 150 years. He is one of four Greeks on the team.

Gkouzouris notes that the team’s expertise revolves around farming, water management and flood protection, and does not include plans for the protection of cities and smaller communities.

Having done an initial aerial survey by drone, experts focus on breached dams or ones clogged with debris, and damaged bridges and levees. They also examine irrigation and drainage works, as well as the course of rivers as they descend from mountains onto the plains.

So far, the 15 experts have noted that irrigation canals have not been cleaned, and that tree trunks have been allowed to float into bridges, blocking the rivers and causing them to overflow. But one of the most urgent actions that needs to be taken is the management of the surviving farm animals. They must be fed daily and regularly and there is a significant danger that toxic substances could find their way into their food and water.

“You can’t say, ‘OK, I’ll continue to feed them as before’ … diseases could spread,” says Gkouzouris, adding that the team has been told that more than 140,000 animals have drowned. “The scenes of those helpless sheep and cows drowned in their pens are horrible,” he says.

In the Netherlands, with its long tradition of water management, there is a central agency that makes decisions, not local government. Gkouzouris notes that, in the recent storm, local mayors took important decisions, such as digging overflow channels, without consulting any experts, sometimes aggravating the flooding.

The experts will provide the government with both short- and long-term recommendations.