Rises in sea levels warning (From Tivyside Advertiser)

Rises in sea levels warning

10:25am Tuesday 15th December 2009

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RISES in sea levels will cause widespread disruption to many communities on the west Wales coast in the next few years.

Cardigan, St Dogmaels, Poppit and the Teifi estuary, Aberporth, Llangrannog and Newport could all be severely affected, a meeting in Cardigan was told.

Engineers for consultants carrying out the first series of local meetings for a new shoreline management plan for the region say climate change will cause sea level rises of between one and two meters in the next 50 years.

Greg Guthrie of Royal Haskoning consultants, a firm working on a 100-year shoreline plan for the whole of west Wales, told the Cardigan meeting: “There are places here living on the edge already and the coast is changing constantly.

“We could have a two metre rise in levels in the next 100 years, but it could realistically be a lot more than that.”

Properties near the sea in Aberporth, Llangrannog and Newport Parrog would all be at risk. Streams will back up causing problems higher up Mr Guthrie said: “A one metre rise in sea levels, which we might expect within 50 years, would mean that at the highest tides every fortnight many properties would be flooded.

“On top of that we would be dealing with severe weather events.”

He added this would also mean “extensive flooding” in Cardigan and St Dogmaels, “severe damage” to the dunes at Poppit and the spit at Pen yr Ergyd would “certainly” be destroyed.

Properties on the tidal reaches of the Teifi would all be affected.

“Climate change is a major player in the pressure on the coast, but there are other changes too,” said Mr Guthrie.

County councillor Ian ap Dewi, who also met the consultants at Llangrannog beach this week, said: “It is a very worrying scenario for many people and I was disappointed that there weren’t more at the meeting in Cardigan to find out what will very likely happen here.”

Mr Guthrie said the management plan is about how to manage the changes we could see.

He added: “Our meetings this month are about explaining to people what is most likely to happen and to find out what people want and how we can manage the problems locally.”

Full proposals for the new management plan covering 1,200km of coastline from St Ann’s Head to the Great Orme will be published next year with a consultation on the plans in the Cardigan area in the late summer.

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