CIWEM Welcomes the Draft Floods and Water Bill

In this context, CIWEM supports the Environment Agency's Strategic Overview role for all sources of flooding. CIWEM also wishes to see statutory requirements for all parties with responsibility for flood management to cooperate and share data more effectively.

It is essential that the Draft Bill recognises the importance of managing surface water more effectively. Development and climate change are placing increasing pressures on water resources and the underlying theme of the Bill must be to manage water in a way which slows its progress from the top of catchments to the sea - providing greater opportunity for its use as a resource and reducing rapid runoff which results in flooding. CIWEM therefore supports the requirement for production of Surface Water Management Plans, the cancellation of the automatic right of new developments to connect their surface water drainage to sewers and the clarification of responsibilities relating to sustainable drainage systems (SuDS).