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Monday, December 9 2002
FLOODED BRITAIN
TX: Late Jan, BBC 4, 50 min
On the 50 th anniversary of the worst flooding in British history, when 307 lost their lives and 21,000 people were made homeless, Flooded Britain revisits the Essex coastline and discovers how and why we are now dismantling the flood defences built to prevent such a disaster recurring.
With rising sea levels and global climate change presenting new and present dangers, vast areas from Lincolnshire to Essex are under increasing threat. This Open University/BBC programme scheduled for a prime-time slot on BBC FOUR argues that sea walls are part of the problem, not the solution.
In what is set to become one of the greatest domestic controversies of the century, some environmental experts are using the Essex coast to test their theory that it's time to relinquish mastery of the waves – time to admit we can no longer hold back the tide with steel and concrete and time to let saltwater reclaim what man has wrested from it. They would like to see vast areas of the most productive farmland returned to its original mudflat splendour.
One expert at the forefront of this campaign is MARK DIXON , a special projects manager with
DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs), who, for 15 years, has made it his mission to knock holes in sea walls. A passionate advocate for the regeneration of saltmarsh, he oversees work that includes flooding prime arable land surrounding Abbot's Hall in Essex.
Flooded Britain witnesses the wall being breached and talks to those farmers and landowners who oppose Mark’s argument that "the best defences are natural not artificial".
He says:
"Seawalls are failing to work, despite the huge public expenditure. If we take on nature we will lose. It is the saltmarshes themselves that can handle dangerous tidal surges. They are the lungs of the sea, a vital breeding ground for commercial fish stocks, the beds for oysters and havens for flocks of migrating birds.”
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For survivors of the ’53 disaster, like DICK HARMAN , who witnessed the full horror of the tragedy, change cannot come too soon. He, like many others, believes that if things remain the same the east coast will sink under the waves …
The programme’s academic advisor is DR JOE SMITH , a lecturer in geography at the Open
University. He said: “The 1953 floods filled the papers as a rare and tragic natural disaster. The way we’re coming to understand climate change makes many experts feel that these kinds of floods are going to be mor e frequent. And these can’t be thought of as ‘natural disasters’ any more: our way of life, based as it is on burning of massive amounts of fossil fuels, is thought to be causing climate change.
“For many years, we’ve been building costly coastal defences to keep the sea at bay and to cope with flood threats. But as climate change is expected to put those defences under increasing pressure and costs for protecting vulnerable low-lying parts of the coast increase, the programme challenges the long-held view of protection".
Flooded Britain is an Open University/BBC production, produced and directed by Jonathan Clay.
Executive producer is Jeremy Bristow.
The Open University offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses with environmental themes that can lead to bachelor and masters degrees. Its active research in this field includes work by staff from the Faculty of Social Sciences, who have contributed to a number of international research projects. Further details about the programme and its themes will be available from the
Flooded Britain website at www.open2.net
, which will be live from the programme’s transmission date
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Greg Day Greg Day PR t: 020 8960 3814 m: 07889 861646 greg@gregdaypr.co.uk
Neil Coaten Open University Media Relations t: 01908 652580 m: 07901 515891 n.d.coaten@open.ac.uk