From the Region Chair
The winter floods have certainly been challenging for flood defence agencies and navigation authorities. Eastern England received 150-200% of normal rainfall, (including snowfall equivalent) in both November 2020 and January 2021. The effects are evident in pictures from Birstall on the Soar Navigation near Leicester (page 14) and at Taylor’s Lock on the Slea Navigation near South Kyme (above and on page 8).
One such example which CRT are struggling to sort is on the downstream side of Ratcliffe lock on the Soar, where the navigation rejoins the main river channel. As the system re-opens to increasing boat traffic, and river levels return to summer levels, we can expect further silt shoals to appear. The River Trent will again be highly likely to need spot dredging on the downstream “tails” of some of the locks.
Fortunately, no breaches or over topping have occurred in our region as far as we are aware at this stage in early spring. However, on the river navigations in particular we should anticipate the “hidden hazard” of silt deposits, moved downstream by the fast-flowing water, to appear in certain spots.
IWA “Waterways Watch”
Page 6 Aegre 159 - March 2021
Waterways Watch is an IWA initiative to collate and report silting sites and grounding incidences across the system. IWA will then be able to take these examples forward as a tool to lobby navigation authorities about problems on the waterways. This will also enable IWA to lobby government for bet-
