Background

NICW recently published our recommendations to Welsh Government on how to reduce the impacts of flooding in Wales by 2050. Some key issues we raised were the need to work more with nature and within communities, and to develop a catchment approach for mitigating flood impacts.

Through the development of our recommendations to Welsh Government we became aware that there was a great deal of partnership working being carried out in the Bannau Brycheiniog. This approach is exemplified by the work of the Usk Catchment Partnership, so we decided to undertake a study tour to find out how our understanding of policy could be better informed by good practice.

The context

To help us understand the local context, our visit started with presentations from a number of local organisations, including:

• Save the River Usk
• The Bannau Brycheiniog Mega Catchment
• The Beacons Water Group
• The biochar project
• Penpont project
• Nature Guardian

This information was extremely helpful for us to understand the challenges for land management, and the responses.

Natural Flood management

Several of the participants from the Beacons Water Group volunteered to host a walk on their land in order to demonstrate the practical application of natural flood management. The setting was superb; snow-capped hills in the distance, and scattered sunshine throughout the morning.

The focus of our visit was particularly important as it was just before the forecast for heavy rain from storm Bert.

The effectiveness – and cost-effectiveness – of natural flood management was evident in the many examples we saw as we moved from one water catchment to the next.

We were delighted to see the farmers were leading in implementing good practice, and were starting to spread their knowledge within the local farming community. Many hundreds of small interventions upstream has the potential to make a very significant difference further downstream.

Many of the interventions being trialled for increasing the amount of water stored in the soil were also effective at improving carbon retention and reducing erosion.

From the perspective of the approach being championed by the Beacons Water Group, our recommendation for involving far more nature within flood management seems to be very well aligned with the approach being taken by leading practitioners.

In the example above, the stream has had multiple leaky wooden dams installed in order to ‘slow the flow’ and reduce the likelihood of the culvert being blocked. This is not only beneficial for keeping water on the land, but also reduces the cost of repairing ground on fields which would otherwise be eroded in times of excess rainfall or flood.

The future of food and farming

Our next destination was the future, courtesy of students at Crickhowell High School. We were invited to watch three short videos detailing the different ways that food was produced, bought and sold in the past, present and future.

The videos were projected onto the inside of a dome creating a memorable experience.

Following the films, we discussed visions for food for the future with schoolchildren and other local stakeholders.

Flooding in Crickhowell

Our final stop of the day was at the Bridge End Pub in Crickhowell, where we heard first-hand from people who were flooded during Storm Dennis in 2020. Some people are only now completing the repairs, after extensive challenges with insurance and finding suitable contractors. Many people described living in fear of another flood, with anxiety triggered every time heavy rain was forecast.

We heard a number of suggestions for improving acute flooding issues and will be incorporating some of these into our future communications with organisations responsible for reducing the impact of flooding.