Flood of concern over river drainage

EFFORTS are currently underway to resolve issues with drainage at the Bouleyree and Rine Rivers, which led to severe flooding last year.
Following a public meeting on the August Bank Holiday Monday, the Bouleyree/Rine River Drainage Committee was established with John Perkins at the helm as chairperson and Catherine O’Halloran as secretary.
Between 40 to 50 concerned locals attended the meeting, among them local councillors Pat Daly and Sonny Scanlan, which discussed the flooding last November where a number of families were washed out of their homes with others cut off.
The committee is aiming to gather information from those living on the banks of the rivers to establish where problem areas are and where the rivers burst their banks last winter.
It is then envisaged that a submission will be made to Clare County Council to seek assistance from the Office of Public Works to have drainage works carried out.
The area of concern spans a large stretch from Moymore Cross south into Quin and out into Fergus at Latoon Bridge. Locals have undertaken their own study based on experience and knowledge of the river, thereby negating the need for the council to spend money conducting a study of its own.
Speaking to The Clare Champion, committee secretary Catherine O’Halloran, explained, “Last year at Caherlohan alone, three houses were flooded. Meanwhile, on the road from Grove Cross to Donnellan’s Cross, there were six floods on that road and people were hemmed in for days. Dangan school had to close for two days and on that road, six houses were cut off at Creevagh. The flooding caused large-scale damage to homes causing people to have to do major work afterwards. Another issue for people is insurance because you’re not going to get flood cover a second time round. There were several incidents where people would have been isolated and had to take a detour causing inconvenience,” she stressed.
Ms O’Halloran claimed it has been at least 40 years since drainage works were carried out on the rivers, although she is aware of some work carried out at Ballykilty in the last few years.
“In view of the fact that people’s houses are being flooded, drainage works have to be made a priority. The rivers are filled with vegetation after years of neglect. The feeling locally is that something needs to be done. We are currently putting our submission together and we will be highlighting the problem areas,” she said.
Councillor Sonny Scanlan added, “On the road from Caherlohan, there were five separate floods last winter and there is huge concern among the people about something similar happening this year. The river was cleaned from Ballykilty to Quin some time ago but the other side hasn’t been cleared in 40 years and so many houses got flooded last year and thousands of acres of agricultural land was also affected”.
A further meeting of the Bouleyree/Rine River Drainage Committee is to be scheduled in the next week to finalise the committee’s submission, which will then be forwarded to the county council.