MEIRIONNYDD farmers have spoken of the “need for urgent action” to stop future flooding.

The Meirionnydd branch of the Farmers’ Union of Wales raised this with Natural Resources Wales chief executive, Clare Pillman, who was invited to visit various sites within the Internal Drainage District in the Dysynni Valley near Tywyn. Dwyfor Meirionnydd MS, Mabon ap Gwynfor, organised the meeting.

Meirionnydd county officer, Huw Jones, said: “The site meetings were an opportunity to show the deficiencies in the drainage system, and the need for urgent action. Substantial investment is required to improve some floodbanks and the infrastructure and dredge parts of the river.”

Many farmers said it was disappointing NRW find it difficult in this day and age with all the modern machinery available to carry out their Statutory Duties of maintenance, which was done by the Victorians by hand. One of the main problems under discussion was that the River Dysynni has silted up in some areas, which is impeding the flow of the water. In addition, river-water is overflowing into the low-level system, and as a result, overwhelming the low-level drainage system.

Other problems include overgrown river banks, deteriorated embankments, weakening of river banks, poor quality ditching, problems with culverts and other issues in the low-level drainage system such as blockages in the outfall chamber. It was discussed that the weakened state of the river banks and ditching banks makes maintenance work difficult or impossible in many cases. Environmental regulations also limit the scope of such work. It was stated strongly that farmland, habitat and wildlife is in decline as a result of increased flooding in the Dysynni Valley, and that new sources of funding must be found to resolve the issues.

Mr ap Gwynfor said: “The farmers of the Dysynni valley have a legitimate concern regarding the water levels in the valley. The drainage scheme, which was devised in the Victorian era is an ingenious piece of engineering, and should allow water to drain from the valley to the sea, however water levels remain high there because it cannot flow out of the mouth of the Dysynni because of various factors, including silting in the river mouth. Work must be done in order to allow the water to drain properly and for the farmers to be able to use the land without fear of flooding.”

Clare Pillman said she was delighted to visit Dysynni Valley with members of the Meirionnydd Branch of the FUW and hear their concerns about the internal drainage district and flooding in the area.

“NRW administers the Dysynni Internal Drainage District (IDD), she said.

“We consult widely on where activity to deliver our work programme is carried out each year to ensure we consider the views of farmers and stakeholders and reap the best value for IDD drainage rate payers. Last year 31km of ditches in Dysynni IDD were opened by contractors to the available budget. Our focus this year will be to continue to deliver the costed programme in line with environmental standards. We also continue to inspect and maintain our defences and flood assets on the Dysynni, reducing the risk of flooding in the area. Work is planned for 2022 which will also benefit the Internal Drainage District.

“As climate change intensifies, flood risk management will be an increasing challenge. We continue to listen to and work with those in the catchment on managing the flood risk in the area and would welcome any further opportunity to continue this discussion.”