What to do About The Flooding

Either through sheer luck, good fortune or the grace of some spiritual being - I have never been involved in a life-threatening natural disaster. My heart always goes out to those people, especially those in developing countries who have so little and lose it all in floods, typhoons or tsunamis. While Canadians may have more protections and supports available than do people living in the developing world, their loss of the irreplaceable items in their lives and the disruptions that will last for months after the rest of us have forgotten about the event are just as significant. I cannot imagine the stress, frustration and exhaustion that some Canadians are now experiencing in Eastern Canada. Long after the flood waters recede, they will be picking up the bits and pieces of their lives.

In the upcoming days and weeks, people will complain about the lack of government planning, the lack of foresight - someone should have known this would happen and stopped it. Perhaps someone will even attempt to sue someone of something. But the flooding around Ottawa, Montreal or St. John is not much of a surprise for many people. Or at least it should not have been. If humans continually pave over our creeks, our streams, our meadows - where do they expect the melting snow and rainwater to go? If we continue to build dams, dredge swamps, cut down small forests and redefine/reshape the shores of rivers and lakes - how can we be surprised that the water flows onto our streets and into our basements? While people may be right, governments can and should do more to prepare urban areas for such widespread flooding, those same people need to be prepared to start paying for those preventative measures.

Winnipeg, the only Canadian city that has had to invest money in creating alternative routes for the flood water, has spent millions and millions of dollars over half a century to ensure that its core does not get flooded again. Clearly, other cities will need to do the same thing and do so in a much shorter period of time. Other places in Canada not only done little planning but have continued to allow people to build in areas that could be at risk of flooding (our definition of a "flood plain" may need to be broadened). Town and city councils that are desperate to find funding to operate municipal services have been far too willing to allow developers to reshape the landscape in areas that are now at risk of flooding. If we do not want our grand-children, in 40 years time to be hearing about the loss of property and life because of flooding - then we need to make a commitment to do something now.

However, all of the floodways in the world are not going to stop the problem of too much water coming through the system at one time. Everyone, including politicians, need to accept that our climate is/has changed. There will be more frequent, stronger storms - not as the exception but as the norm. Our coasts will be inundated with hurricanes, while other coasts will experience drought years in succession with the resultant forest fires. Some of those changes are, in all likelihood permanent others are perhaps reversible over the long term, but until we accept the reality that change is occurring and that human activity is causing at least some of it - we are screwed.

We probably can't stop the flooding next year or the year after - but we can quit being so damn silly about partisan politics and get on with the job of saving our grandchildren.