EU Green Week focuses on water management in the face of flooding risk

euronews (in English)

According to a report published by the European Environment Agency earlier this month, 12 per cent of Europe's population lives in areas at risk of flooding.

Transcript

00:00 Pepinster in eastern Belgium still bears the scars of dramatic floods that hit in July

00:08 2021. Images from the flooding shocked the European Union as the same torrential rain

00:15 and flooding also impacted Germany and the Netherlands.

00:22 The toll was particularly high, with 240 deaths and around 50 billion euros in damages. For

00:29 the mayor of Pepinster, this extreme weather event served as a catalyst to wake up to the

00:34 consequences of climate change.

00:36 "I think we are only at the beginning and we absolutely have to take a whole series

00:48 of much more important measures, I would say much more fundamental and structural, so

00:54 that we can face this phenomenon. We must start with everything that is land development,

01:00 the development of the banks, I would say, of the rivers, and also I think that everything

01:07 that is here, the mudflats, which are really the sponge of the region in case of rain,

01:16 the mudflats must be reworked so that they play this role again."

01:24 In a report published this month, the European Environment Agency sounded the alarm that

01:29 12% of Europe's population lives in areas at risk. These extreme phenomena are likely

01:41 to multiply and intensify in the future.

01:48 "There are two main things, effectively, financial resources. It also means that in

01:55 the European financial framework, all adaptation policies must be integrated. Countries must

01:59 massively invest in adaptation policies. That's one thing. And then another thing is

02:05 practical changes, the implementation of solutions based on nature. That's what's most effective.

02:11 And so it doesn't necessarily cost more, but it's really model changes, changes

02:15 in the state of mind, almost cultural changes."

02:18 According to the European Environment Agency, flooding could intensify mainly in northwestern

02:24 Europe and in the center of the continent.

02:25 -END-

02:30 (whooshing)

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