The Water Framework Directive

This EC Directive will result in the most important changes to UK legislation protecting the water environment since 1974 when the Control of Pollution Act was passed. It will extend environmental protection for

•  Point and diffuse sources of pollution

•  Impacts associated with water abstractions, dams and engineering work.

At the core of the directive is the requirement that the issues are handled on a whole catchment basis, using what is called "integrated river basin management" (IRBM), managing catchments at a River Basin (RB) level.

Legislation is currently being prepared to implement the Directive in the UK , and this will give the environment agencies (EA and SEPA) more powers to protect the environment. So why does this create a problem for flood insurance?

The answer is that while the Directive is intended to cover every conceivable aspect of water, it has virtually no mention of urban flood risk at all, and no flood risk directive is planned. In other words, the key limitation of the draft legislation under the Directive is that so far, it is only concerned with flooding where flooding or flood management, for example, flood defence works, could affect ecological status. However, other Member States in Europe intend to use river basin planning and a catchment approach under the Directive to manage flooding in a more holistic way.

Another problem is that the River Basins envisaged are enormous, perhaps only three for Scotland and five for England and Wales . What chance is there for local community involvement in such massive areas? There is even a proposal that all of Scotland 's lochs will be treated as one national river basin.

The author worked with no fewer than 32 leading ecological charities and NGOs in Scotland in a consortium called "Link" to lobby the Scottish Parliament for changes in the draft legislation (for details, see www.scotlink.org ). This lobbying was successful and the resulting legislation, The Water Environment and Water Services ( Scotland ) Act 2003 should ensure a more satisfactory situation. There are, however no signs of a similar approach in England and Wales .

Please note that most of the following comments could apply equally to the proposed legislation in England and Wales , but the author is not aware of similar lobbying in England .

The following is an extract from WWF's submission to the Scottish Parliament about the proposed legislation in Scotland , the "Water Environment and Water Services Bill".

"The Scottish Executive must take the opportunity presented by the WFD to create a national, strategic flood planning body, linked to River Basin Planning and underpinned by statutory Flood Liaison and Advice Groups, with a strong remit for environmentally sustainable flood management.

"This will overcome the current problems of flood management, which stem from a lack of a catchment approach to flooding, severe fragmentation of responsibilities for flooding and a reactive approach to flood management.

"WWF strongly believes that national, strategic flood planning, linked to the WFD and underpinned by statutory Flood Liaison and Advice Groups with a strong remit for environmentally sustainable, catchment level flood management will enable Scotland to tackle flooding properly and face the reality of climate change. The WFD is the best opportunity Scotland has ever had for catchment-level, sustainable, flood management. We must make sure that this opportunity is taken and that we can manage flooding better for the long-term in the context of climate change.

"In order to make best use of the WFD and Flood Liaison and Advice Groups, legislation transposing the WFD must make strong links to sustainable flood management. Provision should be made for the creation of a national body or Flood Appraisal Committee to set strategic principles and feed into the River Basin Planning process. NPPG7 on Planning and Flooding and flood legislation need to be reviewed to strengthen the role and membership of Flood Liaison and Advice Groups. Flood Liaison and Advice Groups should have a statutory advisory role firmly based in sustainable flood management principles, and their membership should be expanded in line with sub-basin planning to include non-planned land-uses, like agriculture and forestry. A Flood Appraisal Committee and Flood Liaison and Advice Groups could provide useful input to the proposed plan-led approach to engineering works within the RBMP."

WWF and the author were optimistic that the combined onslaught of so many leading environmental organisations would have an effect on the proposed legislation in Scotland . This in fact turned out to be the case, and the final legislation in Scotland "The Water Environment and Water Services ( Scotland ) Act, 2003 responds to concerns about flooding issues. It remains to be seen whether this will influence legislation in England and Wales .

WWF point out that

"Climate Change is an issue that we cannot afford to ignore. Climate change experts in Scotland estimate that a 100-year return period flood in the 1990s will, by 2050, have a 60 to 65 year return period for rivers and a 10 year return period for coastal flooding. This means we can expect floods like the Perth floods of 1993 every 60 or so years. Many thousands of homes in Scotland lie in 1:100 year flood risk areas and this figure will rise with climate change. The Association of British Insurers recently advised government that guaranteed cover for homes and shops will be withdrawn in December 2002 unless flood planning and defences are improved.

"The impacts of flooding and the severity of flood events have been exacerbated by human activities in catchments, including built development, poorly planned flood defences, intensive agriculture and forestry. As floodplains have lost their wetland habitats so they have lost many of their natural functions, such as pollutant filtering and flood storage, with resultant costs to the taxpayer in terms of water purification and flood defence.

"There are three major obstacles of sustainable flood management in Scotland today:

•  Flood management does not take river systems approach, taking account of the causes and effects of flooding at catchment level. This is reflected in a lack of detailed flood information at catchment scale. Although the technology is available, in the form of Laser altimetry and hydrodynamic modelling, that could be linked to the internet, SEPA lacks the resources to do this.

•  Responsibilities and powers for flood management are extremely fragmented. For example, urban planners have little control over the effects of intensive agriculture or farmland flood defences on flooding downstream. This point was made repeatedly at the RTPI conference on Flooding and Climate Change, held in Edinburgh on 19 September 2001 .

•  Flood management tends to be reactive, not strategic. It deals with the effects of flooding in urban areas rather than its causes elsewhere in the catchment.

•  Flood Liaison and Advice Groups have a great potential to contribute to better flood management. They provide a forum for communication between interest groups and for information exchange. They can take a more strategic approach to flood planning and influence development of good local flood policies. They provide an independent body that can support the Planning Authority and SEPA in reaching decisions on specific developments. They are a good forum for awareness raising and training, and they can provide a vital link between flood risk and the management of wetland habitats.

"There are great cost benefits to taking advantage of the tools we have - Flood Liaison and Advice Groups and the Water Framework Directive. With climate change a reality we need sustainable, catchment-level flood management, and the WFD offers this general approach to water planning."

Perhaps there should be similar lobbying in England and Wales , but unfortunately they do not have Flood Liaison and Advice Groups as in Scotland .

If the proposed legislation is not changed, there is a real danger that priorities will shift from protecting people from flood to protecting the habitats of wildlife. The need for new legislation offers the chance to protect both and one hopes that the opportunity will not be wasted.

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