So, just who is to blame when a new estate ends up underwater?
Saturday December 05 2009
The first inkling Mary Mulligan had that something terrible was about to happen was when she saw the water lapping against her patio window. "I was thinking, that's an awful lot of water. I looked out front to where the cars were parked and the water was at the same level as the footpath. It was a case of watching it rise very fast. Every 10 minutes it was worse."
It took only a few hours last Sunday morning for flood waters to swamp Ms Mulligan's ground-floor apartment at The Waterways complex in Sallins, Co Kildare, (how horribly ironic that name now seems). By midday, it was clear a major flood was unfolding as rainwater that had pounded the commuter village overnight failed to drain away, forcing residents to abandon their homes and leaving them facing potentially ruinous repair bills.
Aside from the human cost, the flooding of The Waterways, completed in early 2007, raises questions about the planning guidelines under which it was built. Some locals wonder whether the apartment block, which adjoins Sallins-Naas railway station, should have received the green light from Kildare County Council in the first place.
"What has gone wrong to have this flooding take place so soon after the development?" asks local independent councillor Seamie Moore.
Previously the site of a pitch and putt course, the area in question was well known to be vulnerable to flooding he says.
"A lot of people in the area would indicate, and rightly so, that when there was a pitch and putt course there -- even if you were travelling along the train -- you'd see the bloody thing was flooded. It was quite true that it was always flooded.
"Whatever kind of land there is, it's either low-lying or has a non-porous type of soil. I would go for the low-lying. It just didn't get away. Water won't go up the hill," he says.
But the council robustly defends its role in the process. "Let's be clear that the responsibility for that piece of property, which was privately built, privately owned, privately managed and privately maintained, rests with the developer," says Kildare Co Council spokesman Charlie Talbot.
"Whether they got permission from the county council or An Bord Pleanála or the High Court makes no difference.
"The position is that it is a piece of private property built for profit. I presume some profits were taken out of it. The people who have responsibility... are absolutely the owner and the management company."
Unfortunately for residents, the developer G&K Building Co Ltd went bust in May -- a victim of the collapse in construction. For its part, management company Wyse pointed the finger at the council.
"It is our understanding, based on information received from service personnel, that the external drainage facility ... is inadequate to cope with the unprecedented flooding from a local stream outside, and at the rear of The Waterways," it said in a statement.
"Our office has been previously in communication with Kildare County Council on a number of occasions by telephone and email to advise of the drainage problems and the potential risk of flooding in this area," the statement added
All of which is of little comfort to Mary Mulligan and other residents as they face the prospect of a homeless Christmas.
"I came into work this morning thinking it would help," says Ms Mulligan, canteen manager at Tesco in Naas. "I'm staying with wonderful friends but it's their house, it's not my house. It's so unsettling. Christmas is coming. I have three grown-up children who usually spend Christmas with me. Now we are looking at hotel packages to see where the four of us can go. I don't even want to think about Christmas to be honest."
For her, the deluge also brings with it a horrible sense of déjà vu.
"My parents are farmers and when I was nine years of age our farmhouse was flooded. So this is the second time I've lived through this. It took a whole year for us to repair the house.
"What I remember as a child was the smell. It's so hard to get the smell out. It's not clean water that comes in obviously. It happened in November as well, so it's an awful coincidence."
Irish Independent
