In Wales, 1 in 6 properties is at risk of flooding – do you know if yours is one of them?
Find out if you are at risk of flooding by putting your postcode into the search box on the right of this page.
How to be prepared
If you are at risk, there are lots of things you can do to prepare before a flood happens.
What is Flood Awareness Wales?
Our Flood Awareness Wales programme aims to ensure that communities at risk of flooding know how to prepare and how to respond during a flood incident.
Launched by Jane Davison AM, former Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing, on 18 June 2010, the programme was initially funded to run for a year by the Welsh Government. However, due to the success achieved by the programme, Environment Agency Wales has committed to fund the programme for a second year, until March 2012.
We work with individuals, businesses and whole communities to raise awareness of flood risk and help people take actions to prepare.
Our work is vital as our climate continues to change and the risk of flooding increases. With weather patterns becoming more erratic, we can no longer rely solely upon flood defences to protect us. We can't prevent flooding, but we can help people prepare for it.
What are we doing?
Last year, the Flood Awareness Wales programme focused on three main activities - a Welly Boot Tour' road show; door to door engagement and whole community engagement.
- Community engagement
Working closely with community groups, schools, business and other organisations to help develop and test community flood plans that protect whole communities from flooding.
- Door to door engagement
Speaking to people on the door step in priority communities across Wales to inform them of their flood risk and help them prepare for flooding.
- Flood awareness through education
Working with schools at risk of flooding to develop school flood plans and raising awareness of flood risk through the national curriculum.
Flood Awareness in Cardiff
We are working with Cardiff Council to make sure that people who are at risk of flooding in the city understand their risk and know how they can prepare for and respond to flooding.
Over the next few weeks, we will be contacting 20,000 properties in areas at risk of flooding in Cardiff to explain why they are at risk and encouraging them to take steps to reduce the risk of flooding.
If you receive a letter from us, you can find out more about how to be prepared for flooding on this page.
Community events
We are also working with Cardiff Council to arrange community events to give residents more information about how to prepare in advance.
If you are interested in arranging a community event for your area please contact:
- Ed Ward - Environment Agency Wales on 029 20 245 251
- Tim Davies - Cardiff Council on 02920 871 838
Find out more about about Flood Awareness Wales in Cardiff
Achievements last year
Between July 2010 and March 2011, we visited over 62,000 properties in 160 of the most at risk communities in Wales. With a response rate of just over 41 per cent (above the national average) we spoke directly with the residents of over 25,000 households and businesses. Of the people we spoke to, 92 per cent said their awareness of flooding had been raised, and over 17,500 confirmed they would take practical action to prepare for flooding as a results of our visit.
Working with community groups, businesses and other organisations, we have also completed eight community flood plans, have a further 56 under development and have 200 communities interested in taking a community flood plan forward.
Take part in our survey
Have our officers been active in your community recently? If so, we would like to find out what you think about your flood risk, if you have taken any steps to prepare for flooding and your thoughts on the Flood Awareness Wales service.
Contact us
Flood Awareness Wales
Or, alternatively, contact your local Flood Awareness Wales engagement officer:
