Report warning on UK dam breaches

By David Shukman
Environment correspondent, BBC News

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David Shukman visits a dam in Yorkshire that was nearly breached in 2007

New warnings about the need to prepare for dams being breached are published in a major study into last summer's floods.

The government review, led by independent chairman Sir Michael Pitt, was released on Wednesday.

It calls for the public to be given far more information about the dangers of severe flooding if dams fail.

Experts say a dam at Ulley in South Yorkshire came close to being overwhelmed after massive rainstorms.

Official estimates say there was a 50/50 chance that the dam would have failed.

Hundreds of householders were evacuated from villages downstream and a section of the M1 motorway was closed.

There are estimated to be some 5,000 dams of varying sizes across the UK and the review team concludes that assessments of the risks and implications of breaches need to be far more widely circulated.

In some cases, detailed mapping of the possible flood route has not been carried out or, if it has, there are security constraints about releasing the information in case it aids terrorists.

Memories fresh

The dam at Ulley is now being strengthened in a £3m programme by its owners, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, and a highly detailed survey of the possible flood risk has been commissioned.

A year ago, the dam witnessed a frantic effort to prevent disaster with emergency pumps and vast loads of rock rushed to the scene.

In the nearby villages of Catcliffe, Treeton and Whiston, memories of the urgent instructions to evacuate in the middle of the night are still fresh.

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Although there is widespread praise for the response of the emergency services and local authorities, there is bitterness that the risks posed by the dam were not more widely shared in advance.

One woman said: "Everybody pulled together, but we didn't really know; we weren't told about it."

And a man said that "no one said officially what was happening; we don't know the full danger.".