Taking action for a flood resilient Taff

Overview

Click to read this page in Welsh / Cliciwch i ddarllen y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg 

What is the problem?

The Taff catchment’s communities and landscapes are vulnerable to repeated river and surface water flooding. With the anticipated impacts of climate change, flood risk throughout the catchment will worsen as large storms become more frequent and intense.

There is an urgent need to plan now to improve the resilience of our communities and environments. Considering the challenges faced, we need to think big and act together.

What are we doing?

With this in mind, we are developing a long-term Strategic Flood Risk Management Plan for the Taff catchment to manage the negative impacts of flooding on people, property, infrastructure and the environment.

The Strategic Plan will identify where we need to act and who is best placed to action the opportunities identified. Our objectives are to:

• Help communities and environment to adapt, thrive and build resilience to the impacts of climate change
• Build a collaborative, holistic approach to manage flood risk and improve the environment in the catchment.
• Engage with communities and stakeholders and gain their input to the plan.

How will we do this?

No single organisation has the power or resource to tackle the challenges faced by the catchment alone, and there is no single, viable solution.

A collaborative, catchment-wide approach is needed. Reflecting this, a partnership between Natural Resources Wales, Merthyr County Borough Council, Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council, Cardiff Council and Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water is being formed to develop opportunities, improvements and to deliver the Strategic Plan.

Due to the complexities of the scale, ambition and scope, the Strategic Plan is being developed in four phases:

• Phase 1 - Define (Completed) - Scope agreed. Identify risks and opportunities to collaborate.
• Phase 2 Develop (Due Winter 2025) - Identify and assess opportunities.
• Phase 3 - Refine - Develop plan for action.
• Phase 4 - Finalise - Adopt and implement plan.

Next steps

To achieve our ambitions, we also need to work in collaboration with you to develop ideas and build consensus across our communities and stakeholders.

This year, we will be organising events at a variety of locations in the catchment communities to improve our understanding of your experiences of flooding and discuss flood risk management opportunities. We will be sharing details of these in the coming months.