By NNN-IRNA
London : The British government is urgently reviewing whether London needs a second barrier on the River Thames to prevent the possibility of disastrous flooding in the capital.
Environment Minister Phil Woolas told the Sunday Telegraph that a feasibility study into a new barrier, that could cost Pnds 20 billion (US$40 bn), would report within weeks.
The probability of London flooding had “doubled” from a one-in- 2,000 to one-in-1,000 chance since the Woolwich barrier on the Thames was built in 1983, Woolas said.
He said that the government would have to decide “some time next year” whether to go ahead with building a second barrier. “This is no longer an academic debate. We have seen the floods in England and the extreme weather across the world,” he warned.
The review comes after recent flooding in parts of central England, which the environment minister said could have led to the “biggest peace-time evacuation in this country in history.”
He said the government had come close to ordering the mass evacuation of parts of Gloucestershire after a power station at Walham, had come within “one-and-a-half inches from flooding” last month.
“People accept that it is a real threat but they don’t realise the imminence of it. Hopefully if there is any good that comes out of the floods it will be that recognition,” Woolas said.
According to the BBC, experts predict the existing barrier on the Thames will be used more frequently but fear that by 2030 it may not be able to cope in stopping future floods in London.