Roscommon firm says its product could solve local flooding fears

A Roscommon businessman and Brideswell resident has taken issue with recent statements that there is no solution to local flooding problems until the production of plan by the OPW in 2015. Former county footballer Shane Curran, who heads up Global Flood Solutions, which produces the Big Bag System, a temporary wall structure to be used to stem emergency flooding, told the Westmeath Independent this week that it is simply wrong to say that nothing can be done to remedy the flood situation until then. Their product is proven to work, cost effective, quickly deployed and has won many awards for efficiency, he stressed. "There is a solution which is effective, affordable and right on their doorstep," Shane Curran from Global Flood Solutions stated firmly of the Big Bag System. "We could have 300 metres to councils for less than €40,000 and any other similar product would cost €400,000," he added. Global Flood Solutions, which is partnered with MW Hire, recently provided 4,000 metres of their product to a town in Canada, and it was also sent to Washington in the US to protect the Blue Blains Advance Wastewater treatment plant, the largest site of its kind in the world against the ravages of Hurricane Irene. Mr Curran maintains that the Big Bag System could also be used effectively on a temporary basis in Ireland offering an affordable opportunity for local authorities to protect against emergency flooding with no spend at the minute on permanent barriers. He said the system could be deployed to an area over the winter and taken away thereafter, adding that 300 to 400 metres in the Strand Area would stem any flooding at the site much better than the traditional sandbagging solution. An army report on the system has also proven very positive, he stressed. Curran insisted that the bottom line is that the type of flood we are going to get is consistent and is no longer a once in 100 years type scenario according to working study from the Department of the Environment and the OPW, he highlighted. These type of emergency floods are more likely in the future, he said with Dublin six times more likely to flood and the Midlands three times likely to affected by flood waters. With no money for permanent flood defences around Europe and growing opinion that these types of barriers just move the problem elsewhere, Mr Curran said semi-permanent mobile barriers are now the most effective in terms of stemming flood waters and cost. Roscommon County Council and the OPW has already purchased a small quantity of the product as a preventative measure which can be deployed to areas quickly if there are fears of rising waters. He said the flooding situation in Dublin had focussed minds and he is hopeful that other local authorities will come on board with their system in the near future.