FLOOD DEBATE

What the experts say

BY BARNEY DEVESI

The series of floods that hit many parts of Guadalcanal have been dubbed as the first natural disaster of the New Year.
While floods are a common occurrence in larger islands of Solomon Islands, the recent flooding were said to be the worst in most recent history.
Much of the cause has been blamed on large scale logging operating inland on some parts of east and west of Guadalcanal.
It is said that reservoirs have been built upstream by logging companies and collapsed during the rainfall, having a disastrous effect.
But neither has the media nor environment specialists confirm this by conducting proper investigations, existing as a story believed by many.
Those who were affected came openly and plainly said the flood that resulted in ten deaths was not because of rapid water runoffs but extensive deforestation inland.
Most believed that the larger tree’s that has been logged absorb a significant amount of water and would lessen the flow by interfering with its path.
However in a report that seeks to separate fact from fiction when it comes to forests and floods, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) said there is no scientific evidence linking large-scale flooding to deforestation.
“Planting trees and protecting forests can have many environmental benefits, but preventing large scale floods is not one of them.
“The frequency of major flooding events has remained the same over the last 120 years going back to the days when lush forests were abundant” Director-General of CIFOR, David Kaimowitz said.
The studies showed that economic and human losses attributed to flooding are caused not by deforestation but mainly because more people are living and working in flood paths.
This has resulted in floods that have no severe effects in the past now become a major disaster.
“As far back as the 19th century and continuing to the present, the conventional view has been that forests prevent floods by acting as a giant sponge, soaking up water during heavy rain falls.
“But the massive floods that are blamed on deforestation almost always occur after prolonged periods of rains, which saturate the soil, including forest soil, so that it can no longer absorb additional water.
“Rainfall then has nowhere to go but into rivers where it fills them to the point of overflow” Doctor Pal Singh of the World Agro forestry Center said.
Meanwhile the Member of Parliament for Northwest Guadalcanal, Siriako Usa has indicated that a formal request will be made to the Ministry of Environment and Conservation to send environmentalist to properly investigate the cause of the flood.