Stand up for us" plea from Shannon Callows landowners

“Stand up for us and represent us now in our hour of need” is the plea being made by exasperated landowners living along the Shannon Callows this week as they face into another winter with the ever-present threat of widespread flooding.

The call came from the Save Our Shannon Organisation (formerly known as the Mid-Shannon Flood Relief Group) which claims that “cast iron commitments” made by local TDs and county councillors at a meeting in Athlone last March have yet to be honoured.

Pictured: Michael Silke, Emily Young and Liam Broderick of the Save our Shannon Organisation pictured at a meeting in Athlone last year.

The group asked local politicians to lobby for:

The creation of a single authority with total control of the management, maintenance and navigation levels of the Shannon and

The removal of pinch points on the river, so as to aid the flow of water in times of flooding.

While they acknowledge that remedial works have been carried out in an effort to prevent flooding along the Shannon, they say this work has “mainly benefitted urban areas” and that the proposals put forward by CFRAM “pertain mainly to urban areas” but contain very few proposals, if any for improving conveyancing of water in the Shannon.

The Save our Shannon group has said that two consecutive years of summer flooding in the callows has “ destroyed people’s livelihoods” and is causing damage to various varieties of wading birds that nest in the area. “Summer flooding has already driven the corncrake from the callows and now the curlew is under threat,” they claim.

According to the group, a number of factors contribute to the constant flooding issues along the Shannon Callows, including the river being “choked with silt, silt islands, overhanging trees, weeds and vegetation” and the fact that “little or no maintenance of the river has been organised by the State over the past one hundred years.”

Other factors include the absence of a single authority in charge of the various agencies involved with the Shannon, and the lack of a co-ordinated plan by the ESB and Waterways Ireland to release water at sluices/weirs in Lough Allen, Athlone, Meelick and Parteen Villa in time to lower levels of water in the Shannon ahead of predicted torrential rain.

Despite the fact that various Taoisigh and Ministers have visited the Shannon Callows area over the years, the Save our Shannon group say that the promises which were made have not stopped the flooding “because no action was taken to remove the barriers (constrictions) to the flow of water in the main channel of the river.”

The group has called on Ministers and various local representatives to “prepare for the consequences of climate change, adjust our thinking, and get ready for the damage that excess water in the Shannon is doing and will do.”

With hundreds of acres of land “totally saturated” after the two summer storms, Ellen and Francis, farmers, residents and business owners along the Shannon Callows are preparing for “bleak times ahead” unless urgent action is taken to address the issue.

“It is now time for all politicians in the Dail to act immediately and implement plans for preventing flooding in the Shannon,” say the members of the Save our Shannon group, who have also called on local politicians and councillors to “act on our behalf, represent our views, provide us with answers and live up to your continuous promises.”