The Power of Water

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We all know that the earth is mostly covered by water, and that our bodies are made up of mostly water as well.  Water is an important part of our daily life, yet many people do not give it much passing thought.  Why should they? Water is there whenever you need it, and is cheap to use.  So, people dont think twice about the amount that they are using on a daily basis.  More importantly, many people give little thought to the power that water possess.

I’m talking about the people who have worked hard all their life, and want to build a nice home near the river.  They save for a majority of their life, and look for a place to settle down with great views and enjoy going to sleep with the sound of a babbling brook coming through the open window.  However, they may soon face a problem: They built their home in a flood plain.

This practice is not only unsustainable, but unwise as well.  Who wants to wake up in the middle of the night to a knock on the door or a phone call to someone saying “you have 5 hours to evacuate”.  I can only imagine the horror of being told something like that, then trying to rush your loved ones out the door while deciding what important family heirlooms to save (or at least attempt to save).  Flooding has been a part of nature since long before the humans were around, and will continue to be around for a while.  Floods carry necessary nutrients down the river and deposit them in the floodplains, making the ground quite fertile.

When people build in floodplains, dams, dikes and levees must be built to control flooding in the area.  This practice does not allow the floods to deposit the necessary nutrients, leaving the farmers (and others who live in the floodplain) to fertilize themselves, which causes a host of problems downstream.

People living in floodplains wait for the floods to come, and hope levee’s are not breached, lest their property be partially, or completely, ruined.  Instead, people should consider not building in a floodplain.  The benefits are endless, you wont have to worry about floods and the like, and nature can continue depositing valuable nutrients to the land.

Currently, many planners are seeking to turn floodplains into still useable land, while keeping property development out by creating greenways or bike trails in the flood plain.  This can serve multiple purposes, including the previously mentioned keeping homes out of the floodplain, as well as giving citizens a nice place to recreate.

Questions to the readers:

1. Are people who live in the floodplains responsible for their own property damage?  Should we do away with flood insurance and call it “lack of common sense”?
2. Is there a recreational trail system next to a river/creek in your town? Do you use/enjoy it?

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