Inniscarra Dam a threat to Ballincollig

Damn that Dam

Saturday 21st November 2009 not a nice day, although the sun is shining it serves only to illuminate in greater detail the havoc caused by the rains and the subsequent flooding. People living locally for many years throughout Ballincollig, Inniscarra and Carrigrohane find it hard to recall the likes of this; " never in my seventy five years living here have I seen anything like this, although a flood about fifty years ago came close," remarked one old gentleman; " i hope I don't see the likes of this again, although I have my doubts," he continued. Many like him say similar things, but one thing for sure, they all now live in fear of that " dam outside in Inniscarra,", as one lady puts it, " if it comes down and some think that it came close last night, there will be nobody left in Cork to bury the dead."

Such is the fear now expressed by many, most of whom say that the dam is past its 'sell-by-date' and now serves no other purpose than to provide a fine lake for overseas foreign coarse water fishermen. They may be right, many now feel that something has to be done with the Inniscarra Dam for like the shadow of death it hovers constantly over all in its path, and that includes, most if not all of the town of Ballincollig, Inniscarra, Carrigrohane, and the whole of the centre of Cork City.

For many years past it was the policy of Cork County Council to allow building on the ancient flood plains of the River Lee. Approximately one and a half miles on the valley floor and directly under the dam they built the Innishmore Estate, complete with four schools and a church. Directly to the east O' Flynn developments on the site of the old army lands have built hundreds more houses and apartments including the new town centre retail development. Further on from that towards Carrigrohane there are a number of older estates, some of which are directly above the flood plain, but two years ago in 2007 Mc Inerny Builders built a new housing development on a spit of land jutting out into the river on a flood plain. I wonder do the new residents living here realise that there is a wall of water at least a hundred feet higher than their homes just a little under two miles upstream and all twenty odd miles of that expanse of water is held in check by a concrete wall. They indeed as do all the others live neath the shadow of that dam, and things have changed considerably since it was first built almost fifty years ago.

Read the headlines on this fine November morning,
" Ireland's second city was today cut off as rising flood waterssparked an unprecedented emergency in Cork city."

"An apocalyptic deluge has engulfed huge swathes of the south and west of the country and there will be more heavy rain tomorrow."

"Heavy rains and rising rivers caused havoc as communities were evacuated and roads cut off. The worst hit regions were in Cork, Galway, Clare and Tipperary, where local areas resembled disaster zones today."

"Horrific flooding forced the evacuation of a Cork city hotel, collapsed a quay wall and left underground car parks totally submerged."

"Patients had to be moved to upper floors of one hospital in Cork as streets were swamped with fresh flooding."

"Cork and Galway were today counting the cost of the worst flooding in living memory – with the clean-up and repair bill expected to extend to tens of millions of euro."

I suspect that this is just the opening round. Weather patterns have changed, Rainfall levels have increased dramatically and it now falls with far more vigor and over shorter periods. The wisdom of planners allowing developments to rise on flood plains and in areas where they obstruct the natural flow of ground water need to be reviewed and investigated. But a bigger and more important question needs to be answered, who sanctioned and allowed so much development in Ballincollig under a dam and on a river valley that old maps hundred of years old clearly showed in detail the existence of flood plains and areas liable to flooding. The bigger question is what contingency measures are in place should a serious problem arise at the dam, and whose responsibility is it to inform the population should the need ever arise that homes and schools should have to be evacuated. I think Cork County Council should have a serious look at this potential threat from the Inniscarra Dam, and to be on the safe side they should now seriously consider immediately re-housing everyone in Innishmore which is a local authority estate.

For if that bubble should burst, and who can say it wont, they will be the first to go with many thousands more to follow.