2011 Queensland Floods: Commission to investigate whether flooding could have been prevented

This Monday (17/01/2011), clean-up efforts continued in flood affected suburbs of Brisbane. While businesses in the CBD area recommenced their operations, 22.000 households were still without power. Supermarkets in several suburbs encountered supply shortages of fresh produce such as fruit and vegetables. There were also bottlenecks in the supply of fuel. Road closures and damages to transportation infrastructure caused problems with public transport. The City Cat ferry service, an essential part of Brisbane’s local transport, will be out of service for 90 days.

Prime Minister Anna Bligh meanwhile announced a Commission of Inquiry into the state’s flood disaster. The purpose of the commission is to investigate whether the flooding in Brisbane, Toowoomba and in the nearby Lockyer Valley could have been prevented. The Commission will be headed by Queensland Justice Cate Holmes, with Deputy Commissioners Jim O’Sullivan, a former Queensland Police Commissioner and Phil Cummins, an international expert on dams.

Subject to enquiry will be the disaster preparation and planning by federal, state and local governments. Large parts of the population were unprepared for a flood disaster. Past days have also seen the emergence of a debate on whether warnings from meteorologists were not sufficiently considered, and whether water from the Wivenhoe Dam should have been discharged earlier. The partial opening of the dam to prevent an overflow had contributed significantly to the flood disaster.

The Wivenhoe Dam was built after the major flooding in 1974 further upstream to protect Brisbane city from flooding, and to ensure a reliable water supply. In recent years, during the ongoing drought in Australia, water levels of the dam fell below 15% and caused concerns about Brisbane’s drinking water supply. However, due to the heavy tropical rains over the last weeks of the dam was filled to almost 200% of capacity.

An important question for Brisbane and the surrounding South-East Queensland region will be the future urban development. Large parts of Brisbane are built on flood plains, and the expansion of the city is continuing. The South-East Queensland region has seen a strong increase in population and a construction boom. Brisbane alone had a population increase of 2.7% in 2008/2009. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) classified the region as hot spot for national disasters, especially flooding, storm surges and sea level rise.