Flooding: Warning sites in Wales may be left unprotected

Places hit by flooding may be left unprotected as there is not enough money to cover everywhere, Natural Resources Wales has warned.

It is publishing its six-year flood plan as the country tries to adapt to climate change, rising sea levels and extreme weather.

About one in eight Welsh properties risk being flooded because of coastal location, surface water or rivers.

Recently, Wales has been lashed by Storms Babet, Ciarán and Debi.

Animal sanctuary boss Fionna Ashman has suffered repeated floods from the River Gwendraeth and has often been left cut off.

A few weeks ago she had to ferry her mother, in her 80s, back home in a boat.

Ms Ashman, who owns Lizzie's Barn animal sanctuary in Trimsaran, Carmarthenshire, has also used the vessel to take her dogs to the vet and would move if she could afford to, she said.

Ms Ashman said: "I'm up during the night whenever there's heavy rain, just double checking the car is safe, maybe moving it up the road.

"I check the horses are shut safe in the yard and the gate hasn't miraculously come open. I check that the dogs are OK, that there's no water encroaching." 

She branded life there "intolerable", and struggled to get her post delivered or bins collected.

"It's just an absolute living hell and I feel that the local authorities or the government should be compensating us."

The authorities, Ms Ashman believed, were treating her as if she was expendable.

She said: "They've made a statement to say, that at some point, they have no plans to do anything to protect or compensate.

"So they will basically let us continue to live in this horror until we're forced to leave. It's all I have. Where can I go?"

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is urging the public to be better prepared for flooding and warned in its report that a further 46,000 homes would be under threat in future.

NRW has been demonstrating a new flood defence scheme nearing completion in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, that will protect an extra 386 properties from flooding and is expected to last 100 years. 

NRW's flood risk chief Jeremy Parr urged people to check their flood risk by entering their postcode on NRW's website and said, while investing heavily in flood defences, "we simply cannot just build our way out of the issues we face".

"Wales will need a combination of measures in order to help communities become more resilient."

NRW said while its flood risk management plan covered rivers, reservoirs and the ocean, councils were responsible for surface water and smaller watercourses.

It has 14 priorities which include harnessing natural solutions and working better with landowners and its report said managing the flood risk required "all parts of government and society".