Combating Floods in Dublin

30 Nov 1965

THE possibility of joint proposals from the Corporation and the Dublin Co. Council to deal with flooding in Dublin was mentioned by the City Manager, Mr. M. Macken, at the special meeting of the Dublin City Council. The meeting was held to deal with a long list of resolutions which could not be reached at the ordinary monthly meeting, but in fact only three resolutions, one of which had already been debated in part, were dealt with.
Mr. Macken, who presented a factual report of the extent of the flooding, said there would be consultations with the Dublin Co. Council so that a dual engineers’ report could be presented to the City Council.

Various schemes
The City Engineer, Mr. E. J. Burke, replying to a debate which followed, said that the flooding arose outside their area. He had in the past ten years submitted various schemes running into £2,000,000 tor dealing with flooding and he had written a book about the Tolka. They had been informed that the rivers were the business of the Board of Works. The Board’s scheme for the Tolka would not be until 1967-68. They had a duty to the residents in the area and after two years negotiations had got a grant for the drainage- work there. They had already spent £65,000. Only, 5 percent of the Tolka was in the City area. Referring: to the flooding’ from the Dodder, Mr. Burke said that as far as he could see the Dodder would go on flooding for the next 100 years. No one could propose an economic scheme for it. He thought that they would have to acquire lands including the cricket pitch and the tennis courts in Anglesea Road to be used as a flood plain.

Watery Lane
He said the basement houses in Richmond Road could not be protected against floods. They could not spend half a million pounds for the sake of a few houses. The position in Watery Lane was that the houses there would have to be demolished. The rents there were low, and the people Jiving there did not want to get out but were prepared to take the chance of being flooded, say, once in 20 years in ‘ order to keep their houses, which were only 5/ per week. Mr. Burke told the Council that he had told them, two years ago that a drain would have to be constructed about the houses at Grand Canal.
The Poddle, which ran into the Liffey, underneath Dublin Castle, was able to carry 3.000 cubic feet of water. During the recent floods it would need to carry 12,000 cubic feet, so that the question was where the 9,000 cubic feet were to go. When the plan for diverting the Wad was completed it would take the surplus water from Ballymun area to the Tolka without causing flooding.

After other members had mentioned various types of flooding in the city areas, the report was referred to the General Purposes Committee.

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