‘We have been abandoned’

Shannon Callows farmers hit out at lack of focus on summer flooding

Farmers living along the Shannon Callows are facing into a winter of severe fodder shortages in the wake of unprecedented summer rainfall which has left thousands of acres of land under water.

“Right now over 60 acres of my lands are under water and there seems to be no urgency whatsoever at official level, and no joined-up thinking to tackle the problem which leads me to the conclusion that farmers living along the edge of the Shannon just don't matter,” said Clonbonny farmer Francis Nally.

The severe fodder crisis facing farmers has prompted the lobby group Save Our Shannon Organisation (SOSO) to once again appeal for urgent action to be taken to address the issue of flooding along the Shannon once and for all.

The lobby group is demanding an explanation from the ESB and Waterways Ireland as to why only just over half the sluice gates in Meelick and Lusmagh were open on July 15 last at a time when the flood waters in the Shannon had been rising for over a week and Met Eireann were issuing daily warnings about heavy rains and the dangers of spot flooding.

Clonown farmer John Curley is adamant that if a decision had been made in early July to open the sluice gates to release some of the water building up in the system, farmers along the Shannon Callows would not be facing the loss of all their winter fodder. “I am farming for over 50 years and I have never seen summer flooding as bad as this,” he said, adding over 40 acres of his 75 acre holding at Oldtown is under water.

“I don't know anybody who would be prepared to take a cut of up to 50% in their salary,” said Mr Curley, “but that's what we are facing year after year with the flooding situation and nobody seems to want to take any responsibility for managing the Shannon.”

He added that politicians have been playing “political football” with the Shannon Callows region for as long as he can remember “and yet none of them want to grasp the nettle and sort out the problems once and for all.”

Environmental restrictions mean that farmers on the Shannon Callows can’t cut hay or silage until July 1 each year

With over half his own lands in the callows, John Curley says by July 1, the rain had started, so he is now at the loss of up to 260 bales of hay for the winter fodder season. “It's a total disaster, and there will have to be some compensation scheme put in place by the government to ensure that we can source fodder” he said.

Francis Nally says farmers would prefer to be allowed to farm their lands, rather than receive compensation from the government, and he also concurs with the views expressed by John Curley that if the gates had been opened 12 to 15 days earlier the farming community would not have lost over 50% of their hay, silage and grazing. “All I can see in front of me is a sea of water and nobody seems to want to stand up for the farmers at the centre of this crisis,” he says. While he acknowledges that rising flood waters are an annual problem on his 150 acre farm at Clonbonny Lower, Francis says but he says summer flooding has become “a very worying trend.

In a bid to be pro-active on this issue, he outlined how he contacted the IFA “in early July” seeking to have the sluice gates opened to relieve water pressure. “The IFA were assured by the OPW that the gates would be opened, but yet we learned that just a little over half them were actually open on July 15 at the height of the monsoon-like conditions,” he points out.

The excessive rainfall in July has meant that no meadow has been cut in any part of the Shannon Callows, according to Michael Silke. “Thousands of acres of land are under water at the moment and there is a real sense of desperation among farmers” said the former IFA representative, whose 125 ha farm is located on the Offaly/Galway border.

“Nobody seems to care about the fate of the farming families living along the callows, we have been abandoned by everybody,” said Mr Silke, who has lost up to 50 acres of hay due to the incessant rainfall over the past four weeks.

Mr Silke said feelings are running “very high” among the farming community along the Shannon Callows at the moment, and the Save the Shannon group (formerly known as the mid-Shannon Flood Relief Group) has repeated the call it has been making for many years for measures to be put in place to address the flooding issue.

Chief among their demands is the creation of a single authority with total control of the management, maintenance and navigation levels of the Shannon. They are also seeking the lowering of the three lakes on the Shannon over the summer months to create storage for rising flood waters and the opening of the gates/sluices in Athlone and Meelick in a timely manner and prior to serious rainfall.

“Nothing has happened with regard to the three actions we have called for,” points out Michael Silke, who was strongly critical of both the ESB and Waterways Ireland for the stance they have adopted in their dealings with local farmers. “The management procedures they have put in place have been absolutely diabolical and trying to make contact with them is a waste of time because they won't even answer our calls,” said the chair of the Save Our Shannon group.

When the lobby group discovered that a little over half the gates/sluices in Meelick and Lusmagh were open on July 15 last, and that farmers were facing severe flooding on their lands along the callows, Michael Silke said they made contact “in desperation” with 10 TDs within the Shannon Callows area. “Denis Naughten was immediately pro-active and by lunchtime the following day 28 gates out of a total of 30 were opened, and the question we are asking now is 'why couldn't that have been done when they knew about the flooding risk at the beginning of July?' said Mr Silke.

In response to a query from the Westmeath Independent, the ESB confirmed that, in order to mitigate flooding of the Shannon Callows, the company has "progressively closed sluices at Athlone" in accordance with its "regulations and guidelines."

The company further confirmed that by July 14 last "all sluices were closed" and added that "once all sluices are closed ESB has no further control of flow of the river in the Athlone area." They also pointed out that the sluices at Meelick Weir "are operated by Waterways Ireland" and said they coordinate daily with Waterways Ireland "as to sluice movement" throughout the Shannon "including on the days in question."

The company refuted suggestions made by the Save Our Shannon group that they have refused to engage with them, stating that "we have previously been happy to respond to queries made by SOSO directly" and have "continued communicating with stakeholders as appropriate" throughout the current period of summer flooding.

The ESB also stated categorically that ESB operations at Ardnacrusha have "no effect beyond Meelick Weir" and added that "in fact, there is not enough water arriving at Parteen Weir at present for Ardnacrusha to operate at full capacity."

In a statement released by the Office of Public Works, which has overall responsibility for the management of flood risk on the river Shannon, they said summer flooding in the Shannon Callows region is “a real concern when there is heavy summer rainfall” and that possible approaches to provide a long term solution to this issue “are being developed by the Shannon Flood Risk State Agency Co-ordination Working Group.”

The statement added that water levels on the Shannon river are managed “on a day to day basis in accordance with agreed protocols between Waterways Ireland and the ESB” and that there is “daily communication and a coordinated approach between those two bodies in this regard. “

The OPW reiterated that water levels on the Shannon “will continue to be monitored on a daily basis, along with weather forecasts and water level reading instrumentation to make informed decisions around sluice opening and closing procedures, within the agreed protocols.”