LEICESTER, May 12 — In a stream near Leicester in central England, six volunteers in waterproof overalls and boots busily reinforced mini wooden structures designed to combat the rising flooding threat.

The city, like many others in the UK, has experienced several intense rainfall events in recent years, which have caused significant damage.

Alert to climate change, which intensifies these events, authorities are strengthening their defences and turning to solutions more sympathetic with the environment.

With their feet firmly planted on the bed of the Saffron Brook, a tributary of the River Soar that runs through Leicester, the volunteers ensured the structures’ wooden bundles were securely anchored.

These structures create bends that “change the behaviour of the river” and slow down water in stretches where it currently flows “straight and very fast,” said Dan Scott, who leads the programme at the Trent Rivers Trust, a local group working to protect rivers.

He regularly oversees the installation of new facilities.

A few months ago, the trust dug a pond on a river near the town of Loughborough and installed dozens of leaky wooden barriers to better protect downstream houses that flooded in the past.

These techniques are “complementary to traditional flood defences” such as retention basins and canals that are increasingly under strain, Scott said.

They “help to store some of that water upstream so that those traditional flood defences don’t get overwhelmed, and if they do, it’s not as quickly as if these features weren’t in place,” he added. They also help to maintain biodiversity.

‘Urgent problem’

More than 6.3 million properties are at risk of flooding in the UK, and this figure will rise to more than eight million by 2050, according to a recent government report.

“Flooding is a really urgent societal problem,” said Steven Forest, director of the Flood Risk Management Program at the University of Hull.

Climate events resulted in UK insurance payouts of more than £400 million (RM2.27 billion) in 2022 and more than £570 million in 2023 and 2024, half of which was related to flooding, according to the Association of British Insurers.

Beyond traditional defences, “we need to think about living with water, and we need to think about integrating water within our urban spaces,” Forest added.

He cited the Netherlands, which allocates space for rivers to drain during heavy rainfall, and the United States, where vegetation “buffer zones” were created after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

“Straight-jacketing” waterways with various infrastructure is no longer sufficient, Forest said, especially since seven percent of such structures were assessed to be in “poor” or “very poor” condition by the UK Environment Agency in 2022.

Overcoming scepticism

But convincing residents and authorities is not always an easy task as it often needs explaining that “just because we’ve not built a concrete solution, that it isn’t going to be as effective,” Scott said.

“It’s also about re-educating people in government because it’s easier for them to sell something (to voters) that’s physical and much more prominent within the landscape,” he added.

Traditional developments attracted the lion’s share of the £2.6 billion announced by the government in March to fund new flood defence systems over the next two years.

But Scott noted a greater interest in natural flood management over the past five years, with the previous government launching a £25 million programme last year.

As a result, Leicester will be able to develop several waterways southeast of the city, and 35 other projects have been selected in England.

“It is encouraging that our successful approach to natural flood management measures is continuing to be supported,” Geoff Whittle, a local councillor responsible for the environment, told AFP.

Contemplating the fruits of her labour in Saffron, 50-year-old volunteer Lis Gibbs told AFP that “it feels like you can make a difference,” in contrast to climate change in general, which “can feel really overwhelming”. — AFP

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PARIS, May 8 — Global temperatures were stuck at near-record highs in April, the EU’s climate monitor said on Thursday, extending an unprecedented heat streak and raising questions about how quickly the world might be warming.

The extraordinary heat spell was expected to subside as warmer El Niño conditions faded last year, but temperatures have stubbornly remained at record or near-record levels well into this year.

“And then comes 2025, when we should be settling back, and instead we are remaining at this accelerated step-change in warming,” said Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

“And we seem to be stuck there. What this is caused by — what is explaining it — is not entirely resolved, but it’s a very worrying sign,” he told AFP.

In its latest bulletin, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said that April was the second-hottest in its dataset, which draws on billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations.

All but one of the last 22 months exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the warming limit enshrined in the Paris Agreement, beyond which major and lasting climate and environmental changes become more likely.

Missed target

Many scientists believe this target is no longer attainable and will be crossed in a matter of years.

A large study by dozens of pre-eminent climate scientists, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, recently concluded that global warming reached 1.36°C in 2024.

Copernicus puts the current figure at 1.39°C and projects 1.5°C could be reached by mid-2029 or sooner, based on the warming trend over the last 30 years.

“Now it’s in four years’ time. The reality is we will exceed 1.5 degrees,” said Samantha Burgess of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which runs Copernicus.

“The critical thing is to then not latch onto two degrees, but to focus on 1.51,” the climate scientist told AFP.

JOHOR BAHRU - Penduduk Kampung Belantik di sini menggesa kerajaan agar segera menyelesaikan masalah banjir kilat yang melanda kawasan berkenaan sejak tahun 2012.

Menurut wakil penduduk, Romzi Mohd Hashim, 56, setiap kali hujan lebat selama dua jam, sebanyak 70 daripada lebih 100 rumah di kampung itu akan terjejas apabila dinaiki air hingga mencecah hampir satu meter.

"Masalah banjir di kampung ini telah berlarutan sejak sekian lama. Punca utamanya ialah air hujan dari Kampung Bendahara yang disalur keluar ke kampung ini.

Romzi berkata demikian selepas Ahli Parlimen Pasir Gudang, Hassan Abdul Karim menyempurnakan majlis penyerahan rumah pam air kepada wakil penduduk di kampung itu pada Khamis.

Turut hadir, Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (ADUN) Johor Jaya, Liow Cai Tung. Tambah Romzi, penduduk telah mengemukakan beberapa cadangan bagi menangani masalah banjir kilat di kawasan tersebut.

Antara cadangan yang dikemukakan ialah membina laluan keluar air dari Kampung Bendahara terus ke Sungai Sebulong sebelum disalurkan ke Sungai Pandan.

"Penduduk juga memohon agar pintu air yang dibina berhampiran lebuh raya dipindahkan ke kawasan kampung ini bagi memudahkan penduduk menjaga kemudahan tersebut.

"Sebelum ini, kerajaan telah membina pintu air, namun beberapa bahagiannya telah dicuri sehingga rosak dan tidak berfungsi. Jadi, kami mohon agar ia dipindahkan ke kawasan kampung," katanya.

Sementara itu, Cai Tung berkata, karenah birokrasi dan pertindihan kuasa antara Jabatan Kerja Raya (JKR), Jabatan Pengairan dan Saliran (JPS), dan Majlis Bandaraya Johor Bahru (MBJB) menjadi antara punca masalah banjir kilat di kampung tersebut tidak selesai sejak 13 tahun lalu.

Katanya, isu itu telah beberapa kali dibawa dalam mesyuarat penyelarasan yang melibatkan semua agensi terbabit, namun tiada tindakan susulan diambil.

"Bila kita bawa masalah ini kepada pihak berwajib, berlaku pertindihan kuasa; JKR kata di bawah JPS, JPS pula kata di bawah MBJB, semua letakkan tanggungjawab kepada pihak lain.

"Perkara ini menyebabkan isu ini berlarutan dan tidak dapat diselesaikan," ujarnya. Sementara itu, Hassan berkata, rumah pam yang dibina dijangka dapat membantu mengurangkan masalah banjir di kampung berkenaan.

"Alhamdulillah, setelah permohonan dibuat kepada Pejabat Perdana Menteri, sumbangan kira-kira RM70,000 telah disalurkan untuk membina rumah pam di kampung ini. "Walaupun ia mungkin tidak dapat menyelesaikan masalah banjir dalam jangka panjang, sekurang-kurangnya ada usaha dilakukan untuk membantu penduduk," katanya.