Floodplain Management Australia (FMA) President Ian Dinham has praised two recently released reports, which highlight the benefits to communities of providing flood mitigation infrastructure, such as flood levees.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC) recently released final report on the Northern Australia Insurance Inquiry has found that improving the resilience of properties and communities to natural hazards will have significant benefits, including through lower insurance claims costs.
The report says the insurance industry should work with governments to identify potential public mitigation works, such as flood levees, and insurers should provide estimates of the premium reductions they anticipate if the works proceed.
In a similar vein the Geneva Association's recent report Flood Risk Management in Australia recommends that to further improve flood risk management efforts funding should be redistributed from response and recovery to mitigation.
The report "points to the need for a paradigm shift from reacting to crises towards a risk-based, anticipatory, holistic and all-of-society approach…"
Mr Dinham said, "The risks of flooding are increasing each year due to climate change, yet flooding is the most manageable of natural disasters. We must see Councils getting the support they need so they can adequately protect their communities from future events."
Mr Dinham said communities with flood levees, such as Launceston in Tasmania, Lismore in NSW, and Roma and St George in Queensland, have greatly reduced flood risks and lowered house insurance premiums, and this type of infrastructure needs to be available to more towns across the country.
