THE PEOPLE of Boho have called on the Minister for Infrastructure to take urgent action to tackle flooding in the area.
Local MLA Jemma Dolan recently presented a petition with the signatures of hundreds of local people to Minister Nichola Mallon calling for something to be done to address the perennial problem, which has been causing much disruption and even endangering local life for years.
The petition stated that if an urban area was flooding as often as Boho, funding would likely already have been allocated to alleviate the problem. It called on “all statutory bodies” to work together to find the solutions needed, and for the Department of Infrastructure to allocate funding for that solution.
“Roads Service, Rivers Agency & Fermanagh and Omagh Council work well to help Boho community during times of flooding,” the petition stated.
“Unfortunately government departments have time and again said that the large amounts of money to lessen the impacts of the regular flooding is not value for money. They are wrong, and just because this effects a small population, this is unfair in the extreme.”
Speaking after delivering the petition to the minister, Ms Dolan thanked and commended the 384 local people who had signed the petition.
“Considering the population of Boho, a dispersed rural community in west Fermanagh, this is an astonishingly high number of respondents,” said Ms Dolan.
“Every time there is heavy rain the community of Boho is flooded. This stops carers getting to their patients, it stops residents getting to work and it even stops children getting to school.
“If any urban area in the north was consistently suffering similar floods large amounts of capital expenditure would be used to alleviate the problem.”
Reiterating the call for the agencies to work together and for the Department to allocate funds for works, Ms Dolan also called on Minister Mallon to come to Boho to “meet with residents, to listen to their concerns, and to better understand the difficulties they face.”
Despite various parts of Fermanagh facing flooding every year, not least in Boho, the county has been completely left out of the second cycle of the Flood Risk Management Plan (2021-2027), which was published by the Department of Infrastructure (DfI) recently.
While the plan outlined various proposed flood alleviation projects across the North, it included no planned works for Fermanagh. The plan did mention the local council district, stating DfI Rivers was advising against any planning or zoning of in certain local areas prone to flooding and would be working with the Council on its local development plan.
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