‘Patently ridiculous’: state government failures have exacerbated Sydney’s flood disaster

Wed, 27 Jul 2022 07:05:17 +1000

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/patently-ridiculous-state-government-failures-have-exacerbated-sydneys-flood-disaster-186304>

"For the fourth time in 18 months, floodwaters have inundated homes and
businesses in Western Sydney’s Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley. Recent torrential rain
is obviously the immediate cause. But poor decisions by successive New South
Wales governments have exacerbated the damage.

The town of Windsor, in the Hawkesbury region, has suffered a particularly high
toll, with dramatic flood heights of 9.3 metres in February 2020, 12.9m in
March 2021 and 13.7m in March this year.

As I write, flood heights at Windsor have reached nearly 14m. This is still
considerably lower than the monster flood of 1867, which reached almost 20m.
It’s clear that standard flood risk reduction measures, such as raising
building floor levels, are not safe enough in this valley.

We’ve known about the risk of floods to the region for a long time. Yet
successive state governments have failed to properly mitigate its impact.
Indeed, recent urban development policies by the current NSW government will
multiply the risk."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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