Fake flood tests UK water and power infrastructure
UK companies and local authorities prepare for possible future flooding during Exercise Watermark. Tests are running across four days, providing businesses a chance to assess their readiness for extreme weather events.
This week UK electricity and water suppliers are bracing themselves for a number of simulated floods across the UK as they prepare for future events.
Exercise Watermark, led by Defra, involves ten government departments, hospitals and schools, as well as energy and water companies.
It will test the response to severe and wide-area flooding in England and Wales, and follows one of the recommendations in the Pitt Review that followed the severe floods of 2007.
Five water companies and most electricity suppliers are taking part in the exercise to assess their current flood plans and assess their sites’ resilience.
The recent Engineering the Future report highlighted the need for UK infrastructure to prepare against the impacts of climate change in the future – one being increased risk of flooding.
Environment Minister Richard Benyon acknowledged this when highlighting the importance of the exercise.
"More extreme weather and rising sea levels mean we have to be prepared to deal with the impact of a major flood.
“Exercise Watermark will be Britain's biggest ever emergency exercise and provide a unique opportunity for us to test our responses,” he said.
Major flooding often impacts on the supply of water, gas and electricity in affected areas; in 2007 Walham electricity substation in Gloucestershire came close to being overwhelmed by floodwater.
In the Engineering the Future partnership’s report, the authors warned of “cascading failures” of infrastructure caused by extreme weather.
Benyon told the Guardian newspaper, "regrettably, one thing is certain, especially with the influence of climate change: there will be more floods in future.”
In 2007’s floods almost 7,000 businesses were flooded and the insurance bill ran into billions of pounds.
The environment agency and the government provide flood information on their websites for residential users but businesses can also gain from accessing these resources.
Benyon told website BusinessGreen, "those who have spent time preparing for emergencies are better able to cope and recover more quickly, so I would urge people to think about how they could get involved and use the tools available on the Directgov web site."
The exercise closes on Friday (11 March) and the evaluation and review exercises begin, leading to a final exercise report that will be circulated in December.
For further information:
Directgov - Flooding in your area
Image: qbik | Flickr
