Annabel Rashton
Appearances
Global News Podcast
Extreme weather special
When you straighten the river and that water can rush through really, really rapidly, so the natural bends and wiggles in a river is part of what slows that water right down.
Global News Podcast
Extreme weather special
Also, you create a problem where, because that water is moving really rapidly, although they were trying to get their floodwaters off their fields, they're just pushing the problem downstream, so you're increasing the flood risk further downstream.
Global News Podcast
Extreme weather special
So back in 2016, we set about putting the natural wiggles back. So what you can usually do is when you start to look, is see the ghost channel of where the old wiggly river used to be. But you can also find evidence as well. Underneath, you can find the old river bedrocks and the old river gravels, usually in the land surrounding the river.
Global News Podcast
Extreme weather special
So it was a question of a digger coming in and digging those lovely, nice, meandering... channels back into the ground and putting the river back.