Flooded residents have their say

RESIDENTS of flood-hit areas, agency officials and elected representatives took part in a brainstorming exercise at a meeting in All Saints Parish Hall last week convened after Storm Chandra.

Common themes were better prior planning and alerts via text, lists of phone numbers where people could raise the alarm, a stock of sandbags at accessible locations, flood wardens, evacuation centres, prompt assistance with the clean-up and a quicker response from the authorities.

Many called for the river to be dredged and for frequent clearing of drains and gullies, and there were calls for ‘no more development’ on the banks of the Six Mile Water.

There was also the suggestion of ‘red alert areas’ and a permanent pump or pumping station in those locations.

Riverside residents have also called for emergency access to the one way street, which is cut off once the river breaks its banks, from either Moylena Grove, Riverside School or Six Mile Water Mill

Many residents said they were unaware of how to contact helplines and those in Massereene Street told of how manhole covers blew, covering gardens in sewage, while fencing and walls were swept away.

Other ideas including a protective wall and a drainage channel were discussed, as well as overall improved drainage infrastructure, clearing fallen trees and other debris from the river and bridge arches to prevent blockages the next time it rains heavily.

A Dunadry resident said that more and more houses were being built in her area and the increased amount of standing water on the roads was noticeable every time it rained.

Retired East Belfast engineer Terry Madill, who passed away last year, had settled in Antrim and Riverside resident, Janice Pankhurst, said that he had proposed digging a man-made relief channel close to the pig testing station at Greenmount, 700m from the mouth of Lough Neagh, to help carry water away from the town.

She also said there were ‘too many levels’ in making decisions before action was taken.

A feasibility study into flood alleviation in Antrim town, requested by Sinn Fein MLA Declan Kearney, will apparently be published in summer 2026. He previously hosted a round table meeting with RAMS, DfI and NI Water.

Residents asked if the study and the findings could be expedited, given the severity of the recent flood.

On the subject of pumps, Richard Ayton from DfI Roads, said that once the river reached a certain level at Riverside ‘there is not that much we can do’.

He said that they were ‘out at lunchtime’ and that gullysucker vehicles would have been insufficient and that the first pump deployed ‘wasn’t adequate’.

“Suction tanks were being used in another operation in Eastern division, every member of Roads was out, we had 113 incidents of flooding and trees were down, that was part of the delay, we had to close the M2 from Junction One to Dunsilly.” he said.

John Blair MLA asked why there was not sufficient equipment in the Northern division if tanks had to be redeployed from another area.

“There is a need to acquire more equipment, if Eastern need it as well as Northern, it is quite concerning. In a week or two weeks or two months, at 4pm, it might be somewhere else that day.”

Mr Ayton said: “Everywhere was getting bombarded. We try to deliver to as many people as we can but we do not have the equipment to be in every single flashpoint.”

Residents asked if the floodgates at Toome had been opened, with an official saying that they had been fully open and were discharging ‘200 tonnes a second’.

Residents were agreed that pumping ‘did help’ but that most of the early interventions were made by locals and councillors themselves, and that not enough money was being spent on flood alleviation.

One resident fumed: “We can put people on the moon but not stop houses from flooding.”

A DfI Rivers official said that the Six Mile Water during Storm Chandra was at the third highest level recorded in over 50 years.

He said that the standard designed to for flood defences was Q100, which meant a 1% chance of flooding in any given year.

He said that the work that had been done in Meadowside in raising an embankment after the ‘catastrophic’ 2008 floods had saved a lot of homes and ‘did not cost millions of pounds’.

However it was reported that this time, water came up through the sewers and drains and was ‘ponding’.

Joanne Elder said: “I think people are tired of hearing the same stuff.

“I am no flood defence expert, but it is too late for this, climate change is real and this week has been horrific.

“We should not have to live like this and we want to do our best by our neighbours. We need to stop being so accepting of ‘there’s no more money’.”

She said that a wider flood alert and support group would be set up between residents in affected areas.