A FLOOD resilience campaigner has taken the fight for better home ‘natural disaster’ protection to Brussels after she was invited as an expert speaker despite Brexit.
Mary Long-Dhonau, known as ‘Flood Mary’, who was repeatedly flooded in Waverley Street in Worcester, was invited to give a talk in Brussels on Tuesday on ways to better protect homes across Europe from flooding.
The property flood resilience advocate, who has direct personal experience of flooding, believed one of the reasons she was invited to speak was because there was no equivalent of ‘Flood Mary’ in Europe as leaders on the continent seek to develop more effective strategies for tackling the issue.
TALK: Mary Long-Dhonau at Brussels where she was an invited speaker on flood resilience (Image: Supplied by Mary Long-Dhonau)
Mrs Long-Dhonau, now of Ledbury, was invited to present to the EU section for economic Monetary union who held a hearing about “Towards a European system of natural disaster risk management”.
She was invited on behalf of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) rapporteur, Mr Wauthier Robyns. The event was attended by speakers and several members of the EESC as well as interested external stakeholders.
Mrs Long Dhonau said: “I was asked to talk about the work I do within flood risk communities, rising awareness of how people can better protect their properties to both reduce the amount of water that can enter during a flood and help them recover sooner after a flood.
“I also talked about how I work in partnership with Flood Re to raise awareness of Property Flood Resilience and their “Build Back Better” Scheme, which offers up to £10k on top of an insurance claim to enable people who have been flooded to better protect their homes.
‘Check your flood risk now’ says flood expert as Worcester braced for bad storms
How to prepare for fiercer than usual autumn and winter storms and what to buy
Flood campaigner’s damning verdict on sandbags on eve of new storm
“My own home was flooded 26 years ago this month and never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I’d be asked to go to Brussels to talk about my work. Back in the day, there was no help or support available and I decided to do just that.
“I think they looked over Europe to find a “Flood Mary equivalent” and couldn’t (my husband said, thank goodness, one of me is enough!), so they invited me.
“In the light of Brexit and the fact that we are no longer a member of the EU, I was honoured to be asked.”
Mrs Long-Dhonau has previously urged people to prepare for flooding, especially as this year’s so-called ‘Super El Niño’ is expected to bring more severe storms and potential flooding risks.
The objective of the meeting in Brussels was to bring together public institutions, policymakers, and civil society stakeholders to discuss the topic, and provide policy solutions for a system of risk management beyond national borders that increases protection, efficiency, and effectiveness.
The conclusions of the discussion will feed into our opinion “Towards a European system of natural disaster risk management”, aimed at delivering concrete policy proposals to an EU-wide layer of pooled/solidarity funds to insurance schemes, drawing on the evidence and proposals of the joint paper by EIOPA and the ECB, and to increase resilience and adaption.
