The UK government has agreed to accept 12 recommendations from a newly-published independent review into responsibilities around surface water flooding.

The recommendations were proposed because over 3 million properties in England are at risk of surface water flooding and with the UK regularly experiencing more extreme weather patterns, the government is keen to act quickly to minimise further devastation.

It is estimated that the cost of the clean-up of storms Chiara and Dennis, which battered the UK in February this year will reach over £360m, while in 2015, storms Desmond, Eva and Frank, and the resulting flooding, caused approximately £1.6bn worth of damage

The concern is that these extreme weather events are going to become more common.  In 2018 the Environment Agency warned that intense bouts of flooding are set to become more frequent, while Met Office records show that since 1910 there has been 17 record breaking rainfall months – with 9 of the 17 being post 2000.

Discussing the review, Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said:

“As our climate changes and we experience more frequent short bouts of heavy rainfall in future, it is important that government, local authorities, other public bodies, private businesses and individuals can all work together effectively to tackle the threat of surface water flooding”.

For water companies, with the threat of heavy rainfall and flooding growing rapidly, taking effective steps to mitigate the risk is essential.

The UK’s waste water network is already under extreme pressure through population growth and the ever-increasing demand for new housing.  These factors directly impact the quantity of water entering sewer networks which, in turn, reduces the capacity of a sewer to cope with flood events.

When pairing together the challenges of maintaining a Victorian-era sewer network with climate change and urbanisation, water companies are finding themselves under increasing pressure to find smart, cost-effective solutions.

SonicSens 3

To support a variety of different level monitoring applications, including combined sewer overflow (CSO), blockage monitoring, incident prevention and reservoir level monitoring, HWM has developed SonicSens 3.

SonicSens 3 is an intrinsically safe, ATEX certified ultrasonic level sensor designed for use in a variety of different applications, including remote and challenging installation sites.

Available in measurement variants covering up to 10m, SonicSens 3 is compatible with HWM telemetry data loggers, and so benefits from the latest alarm, reporting and dial-in features.

To ensure accuracy, SonicSens 3 has been designed with an Unwanted Echo filter feature, which ignores unwanted echoes from objects such as ladder rungs, providing the user with confidence in the recorded data.

Powered by the logger, supporting a 5 year battery life and additional battery options, SonicSens 3 benefits from the device not having contact with its environment.  This means the sensor is much less likely to be damaged by the contents of whatever it is measuring and requires lower maintenance as a result.

For more information on SonicSens 3 and our additional variety of waste water monitoring solutions please click here.