Report warns future flooding could lead to £3bn in economic damage

Findings highlight ageing flood and drainage infrastructure

The Island could lose approaching £3billion in economic damage from surface flooding over the next century.

A national Flooding Strategy report warns that the number of properties at risk from coastal flooding is expected to increase nearly four times in that period, due to climate change.

It warns that flooding cannot be eliminated entirely, but it can be cut down

the report looks at where the Island is and what's to be done in terms of flood defences covers the next decade, but it also refers ahead a hundred years.

Much of this report underlines what's already known; that many of our coastal defences, river assets and drainage infrastructure are ageing.

Over the next 10 years national and local flood risk assessments will be studied, updated and action plans developed.

To underline the destructive power of flood waters, reference is made to Storm Desmond in 2015; the deluge that inundated the Laxey River and destroyed the bridge there, costing an estimated £9-15million.

The report will be laid before Tynwald at the January sitting.