Flooding in Mid Norfolk remains a serious problem for too many households in our towns and rural communities.

That’s why I am delighted to be supporting Watton’s bid to the ‘Reclaim the Rain’ project – an initiative being led by Norfolk and Suffolk County Council’s to test new ways of reducing flooding in rural locations and develop innovative ways of saving water.

Watton has faced serious (and growing) flooding problems for a great many years – most notably in 2016 and again in the winter of 2020/21. Back in 2016, I held a site visit with Norfolk County Council officials on Jubilee Drive in the town to discuss the awful flooding residents there had suffered (with residents in other parts of the town suffering similar such issues too) and again, since December 2020, I have been in regular correspondence with dozens of local residents and businesses that had been affected – helping them liaise with Norfolk County Council, Anglian Water and the Environment Agency among others.

The project aims to improve at least six communities’ resilience to flood and drought (three in each county) as part of its first round of work and I believe Watton would be an excellent opportunity to deliver positive and lasting benefits for its residents and businesses, pioneering innovative techniques that can then in time be rolled out to our other problem hotspots.

You might be surprised to learn that, despite the increasing flooding issues that plague our part of the world, water is not as abundant a resource as we might all perceive – with the East of England the driest part of the UK. Indeed, our low level of rainfall is comparable to Mediterranean countries like Greece, Spain and Egypt.

This initiative aims therefore to tackle those particular flooding issues AND look at ways we can better management that water when it arrives so that it can be utilised for farming and other environmental benefits – thus lessening the impacts of water consumption on our local environment.

If YOU would like to support Watton’s bid, please email reclaimtherain@norfolk.gov.uk by close of play on Thursday 31st March with your comments. The more people that speak up, the more chance we have of securing a chunk of the £6.4 million pot granted to the project by DEFRA’s ‘Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme’.

For more innovation, please visit the ‘Reclaim the Rain’ website here

To see more on my much wider work to combat flooding in Mid Norfolk, please visit my campaign page here