The Rivers Agency is an Executive Agency of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD). It is the statutory drainage and flood defence authority for Northern Ireland under the terms of the Drainage (Northern Ireland) Order 1973.
DARD is the competent authority for the implementation of the EU Floods directive and has delegated the day to day delivery of the directive to Rivers Agency.
The Agency Headquarters is located at Hydebank in Belfast and it has Regional headquarters in Lisburn and Omagh and offices in Coleraine, Craigavon and Ballinamallard.
The Strategic Flood Map (NI) - Rivers & Sea was developed by Rivers Agency in co-operation with the Department of the Environment (DOE). The primary aim of the Strategic Flood Map is to provide an illustration of the areas throughout Northern Ireland that are considered to be at risk of flooding from rivers and the sea. In December 2011 a new version of the map was released that refreshed the information on rivers and the sea, updated the historical information to include the latest flood events and for the first time it included a surface water flood layer.
The Map is designed to:
- Help us and others to plan and manage our work to reduce flood risk.
- To encourage people living and working in areas prone to flooding to find out more and take appropriate action.
- Inform anyone who wants to apply for planning permission if flooding is likely to be an important consideration.
Famous quotes containing the words rivers and/or agency:
“I remember once dreaming of pushing a canoe up the rivers of Maine, and that, when I had got so high that the channels were dry, I kept on through the ravines and gorges, nearly as well as before, by pushing a little harder, and now it seemed to me that my dream was partially realized.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It is possible that the telephone has been responsible for more business inefficiency than any other agency except laudanum.... In the old days when you wanted to get in touch with a man you wrote a note, sprinkled it with sand, and gave it to a man on horseback. It probably was delivered within half an hour, depending on how big a lunch the horse had had. But in these busy days of rush-rush-rush, it is sometimes a week before you can catch your man on the telephone.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)