As we see in western Japan recently, floods are a serious threat with at least 157 deaths which is the highest death toll due to flooding in Japan since the 1980’s.

Meanwhile Greece is now experiencing major flash flooding while still recovering from its worst bushfires in history.

Natural disasters can occur anytime and flooding is by far the most costly and most deadly of all natural disasters.

I learned recently that 73% of natural disaster costs in the USA are caused by floods. In the last 10 years every state in the USA has had a Presidential Declaration of natural disaster due to flooding.

Similarly, every single state and territory in Australia has experienced major flooding in the last 10 years.

America takes flooding seriously and is committed to spending $12 billion on mitigation which will reduce flood damage.

The Australian government seeks to cut costs by introducing the new Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements on 1 November this year. It will be interesting to see the long term impact of these new arrangements as they will initially throw more costs onto local councils.

With climate change causing increased rainfall intensities, it seems that flood damage and therefore flood insurance premiums are unlikely to be reduced anytime soon in Australia unless we follow the lead from the USA to increase investment in mitigation.

ID

Ian Dinham | FMA President