Exclusive: ‘Face reality’: Don’t build in flood prone areas, resilience boss says
NSW government plans to increase Hawkesbury-Nepean floodplain population from 70,000 residents to 130,000 by 2050The head of the federal government’s disaster recovery agency has called for an end to floodplain development and says inundated homes should not be rebuilt, as insurers brace for one of the biggest flood claim events in Australian history.
The rain deluge less than 12 months after Sydney’s last major flood event has reignited debate over tens of thousands of homes in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley, considered to have the highest flood exposure in the state, if not the nation.KPMG partner Scott Guse said the recent downpour was “certainly shaping up” to be the largest insurance flood claims event in Australian history, with more than 60,000 claims already lodged and more to come.
Insurance Council of Australia chief executive Andrew Hall said data gathered since 2015 showed 2 to 3 per cent of homes are now in frequent flood zones and 15 per cent were susceptible to flood.Credit:He said the community had to face the fact some of those areas could not be covered by the private insurance market unless there were “other interventions”.
“Regardless of anyone’s views around climate, the facts we can see through insurance claims over the last decade show year-on-year catastrophic losses are being incurred.” “I’m in Brisbane now and there is such a shift in community attitude towards this. Enough is enough. What do we need to do to get a different outcome?“plan to raise the Warragamba Dam wall by 14 to 17 metresThe proposal has attracted fierce opposition over concerns it would cause severe inundation in insensitive parts of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area including hundreds of Indigenous sites.
“It would be remiss of any government following all of this, to not be sitting back and saying, OK, what can be done better on prevention?” he said.
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