In Wales, 1 in 6 properties is at risk of flooding – do you know if yours is one of them?
Our Flood Awareness Wales programme aims to ensure that communities at risk of flooding know how to prepare and how to respond during a flood incident.
We work with individuals, businesses, schools, farms and whole communities to raise awareness of flood risk and help people take actions to prepare.
Our work is vital as our climate continues to change and the risk of flooding increases. With weather patterns becoming more erratic, we can no longer rely solely upon flood defences to protect us.
We can't prevent flooding, but we can help people prepare for it.
How to be prepared
If you are at risk there are lots of things you can do to prepare before a flood happens
How you can get involved
Develop a community flood plan
A community flood plan is a written document that outlines the actions a community will take during a flood. Our community engagement officers will work with a community leader or representative to help them complete this document, which will then be tested and practiced by the community.
Our community engagement officers will recruit flood plan leads to act as a single point of contact and help them complete the flood plan for their community.
Once developed, the plan will be tested by a walk through or table top exercise with one of our officers to ensure that the plan meets the needs of the community. Our officers can help by providing maps and advice, but the flood plan is ‘owned’ by the community.
If you are interested in completing a flood plan for your community please contact us at the email address at the bottom of this page.
Become a flood plan lead
As well as helping develop community flood plans, we also work closely with communities to encourage people to become flood plan leads. These are volunteers who act as the eyes and ears on the ground. They will help communicate flood warnings to their community and will be responsible for putting the community flood plan into practice.
What we do
- Community engagement
Working closely with community groups, schools, business and other organisations to help develop and test community flood plans that protect whole communities from flooding.
- Where we're working
Speaking to people on the door-step and at community meetings across Wales to inform them of their flood risk and help them prepare for flooding.
- Flood awareness through education
Working with schools at risk of flooding to develop school flood plans and raising awareness of flood risk through the national curriculum.
- Case studies
Find out how our Flood Awareness Officers have worked with people in your communities to be prepared for flooding
Achievements between July 2010 and June 2012
- We visited over 71,000 properties in 168 of the most at risk communities in Wales to raise awareness of their risk.
- We spoke directly with residents of over 28,000 households and businesses
- We worked with communities to develop over 300 community flood plans - 40 per cent of which have been tested
- Over 6,500 new customers signed up to receive the flood warning service as a result of our work with communities.
Take part in our survey
Have our officers been active in your community recently? If so, we would like to find out what you think about your flood risk, if you have taken any steps to prepare for flooding and your thoughts on the Flood Awareness Wales service.
Contact us
If you would like advice on how to put together a flood plan for your community or business, you can contact our team by phone on 02920 466103 or by email:
Alternatively, please contact your local Flood Awareness Wales engagement officer:
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