Thank you to Marlene Crompton and Ross Urwin for their letters (11 May) that outline contributing factors to the recent destructive flooding of Mullumbimby.
It could be seen as futile, verging on reckless, to continue the construction of housing in the floodplain township of Mullumbimby when its infrastructure lags so far behind. While hydrologist and Byron Shire Councillor, Duncan Dey, pointed out in this newspaper on 25 July 2018 that water cannot run away once the river is up, adequate, functional drainage is surely an asset in mitigating flood risk. The installation and ongoing management of twenty-first century drainage and its upkeep should be one of Byron Shire Council’s top priorities, particularly in light of future flooding events.
Let’s hope our Council calls a moratorium on further developments until solutions to the current problems have been found, funded and implemented.
