THE URBAN SPONGE

We need to build into our communities the resilience to cope with flooding - sadly in a warmer wetter world - flood events are going to become more common - we need to think and act smarter, with shifting the focus from flood prevention to flood avoidance. Our communities, our nation and our world are becoming more prone to extreme weather, torrential downpours and periods of warmer or hit dry weather. 

Dealing with the consequences of this on a marco level is one thing.  Small relatively simple steps to store water for later use, with water butts (if only to water garden plants and vegetables) can make a very practical if minor use of excessive rainfall and runoff if only very locally.  Aside from helping to save water and to cut water bills.

Local water storage and management is increasingly part of intelligent urban design, something that is becoming more common and necessary in a warmer wetter world.  On a larger scale this is something we will all have to do, naturally some people and nations are a head of the curve when it comes to re-engineering their infrastructures to deal with extreme weather events. 

The concept of the sponge city or urban sponge. something that is embedded and central to urban planning should now be coming into its own, particularly in Wales, with our urban areas being redesigned or designed from the start to soak up, and store deluges of torrential rain to prevent damaging and dangerous flash flooding but without the construction of large scale flood defences.  

The Dutch, for historical and geographical reasons have been involved in serious water management for centuries. Yet in a warmed world, even the Dutch are having to take long hard fresh look at how they deal with the consequences or severe weather and more regular flooding. 

Many urban areas have developed with any serious co side ration of the impact of flash flooding - back in July, in localised parts of London heavy torrential downpours saw local drainage systems overwhelmed - as streets became rivers, homes and businesses were flooded and public transport ( including trains and tubes ) brought to a standstill. In London, heavy rain, which fell on hard surfaces, overloaded drainage and severe flooding resulted. 

Elsewhere things are done differently - the songs city concept has been embraced in parts of Berlin, were green roofs have been created with living plants, mosses and grasses, with plants Boeing on vertical walls, with courtyards planted with vegetation, etc - all of which helps to hold and slow excessive water. One beneficial side effect, if that the retained water helps to cool local neighbourhoods as the water evaporates from vegetation and the ground. 

In the Netherlands, the concept of making room for the river has been embraced to give space for flooding, something which slows the speed of riverine flooding. In Amsterdam, they have constructed rain gardens which have been created from parking areas, which are designed to collect water, people have also been encouraged to remove paving from their gardens, to grow plants and to build ponds to help with runoff and water storage. 

In the city of Rotterdam, public places have been turned into what are called water plazas which turn into shallow lakes during periods of heavy rain, when times are drier these locations are used as public parks and playing fields. Underground car parks have been redesigned or specifically built so that lower levels can be used to store storm related flood waters - which can then be pumped dry when water levels have dropped. 

These concepts are only slowly being looked at a adopted within these islands, we still tend to defy logic and build on flood planes, but, tend not to harden infrastructure of buildings ( commercial and domestic ) or to build with flooding in mind  e.g. build smart using ground floors for storage or parking and raise plug and power points, protect utilities and drains, and put washing machines, fridges sand freezers up off the ground. 

Some urban areas, within these islands, have slowly begun to adopt the concept, there are examples in Llanelli and at West Gordon Park, near Manchester - were porous pavements, shallow depressions, grass berms and small ponds help to absorb and direct surplus water into rain gardens or natural sumps or green spaces that double up as parks in drier periods. 

These are small steps, in a warmer, wetter world with more erratic and extreme weather events the problem of flooding will only get worse. As homeowners pave over their gardens for parking spaces the problem will worsen. The concept of the urban sponge is one that we all need to embrace, along with smart design and smart water management to help to reduce or alleviate urban flooding. 

MISSED ANNIVERSARIES, MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

The end of August is a time of historic anniversaries, admittedly somewhat overshadowed by the drama and tragedy surrounding the collapse of Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul, normally its a time of often ignored or perhaps selectively not remembered anniversaries and interlinked missed opportunities. 

The last few days have seen anniversaries for the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (in August 1968) and the collapse of the Soviet Union (in August 1991) pass largely unremembered. 

On Saturday 21st August 2021 it was the 53rd  anniversary of the Soviet led invasion of Czechoslovakia, it’s an anniversary that these days increasingly passes largely unnoticed save perhaps by some people in Prague. Now that the Soviet Union is history, although Russia on the rise in the east, people have lots of other things to be concerned about.  It’s been 53 years since Soviet troops and most but not all of their Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia on August 21st 1968. 

The Soviet-led invasion effectively established the Brezhnev Doctrine, which Moscow said allowed the U.S.S.R. to intervene in any country where a Communist government was under threat. The Soviet backed occupation of Czechoslovakia lasted until the velvet revolution brought an end to the Communist dictatorship in November 1991 as the Cold War ended. It was always contested - the reformist communists were finally defeated in the mid 1970's just as detente created the Helsinki accords which inspired Charter 77. Russia’s attitude to the invasion still touches raw emotions, evens in the Czech and Slovak republics. 

The thirtieth anniversary of the collapse of the USSR largely passed unremembered, in both the West and more importantly in Russia, the reasons for Russia’s desire to forget the past are understandable. The Brits lost their Empire fifty years ago, and some of them have not got over the losing of it. The Russians lost their Empire in a fortnight, which must still sting a bit, even thirty years down the line. 

The West was strangely silent when it came to remembering the anniversary of the collapse of the USSR. Perhaps considering the hubris displayed at the time and the wilful glee the came with the dismemberment of the old Soviet state industries and assets, the rise of the oligarchs (some of whom were very close and comfortable with New Labour and still comfortable with he Conservatives and the rise of President Putins new Russia, the silence is understandable. 

The it comes to anniversaries August may be the month that keeps on giving on the Monday 23rd August 2021 was the 82nd anniversary of the 1939 the signing of Nazi Germany’s and the Soviet Union’s pact which effectively guaranteed the start of the second world war. The event is remembered the Baltic republic and Poland but very rarely anywhere else, especially in the Russian Federation, where history is both important and selectively remembered. 

When the Poles held a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the start of the Second World War, world leaders gathered, but the Brits did not go, obviously other important things to do and remember. 

Human history is understandably complex, and remembrance is important, forgetting is very human and is part of life, but, remembrance should be balanced rather than selective. Selectively forgetting the past and erasing our collective history is a more dubious practice ( especially in these islands, Hungary, Russia and the Peoples Republic of China, etc ) but also within these islands, especially when it comes to ‘Brit washing’ the perceptions of and the grim realities of Empire, etc. 

Even in the West, the elite can be very selective about the anniversaries and the history they wish us to remember. Creating a rose tinted view of the past, is neither history nor remembrance, its manufactured / peddled nostalgia - and that too is both dubious, dishonest and potentially dangerous. 

Hence the urge to remember the first day of the Somme, Passchendaele, the Dunkirk spirit, the Battle of Britain (all absolutely important to remember, in their correct historical context) - to reimagine these islands past simply to distract people from the mess the Westminster elite have got us into since Suez, the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the financial collapse of 2008, etc is unacceptable but nothing is quite as unacceptable as blatantly lying and manipulating evidence to justify a war. 

Other less reputable awkward embarrassing anniversaries are ignored or effectively selectively airbrushed from history e.g. the Sykes-Picot-Sazanov agreement, the anniversary of  Amritsar, bloody Sunday, etc.  

For most of the last 20 years successive Westminster governments worked hard to ensure that our service personnel have had a much higher profile, making use of various important anniversaries of previous conflicts, sporting occasions and regularly promoting armed forces day. That emphasis had effectively ceased as the  direct involvement of UK service personnel in the cycle of Blair’s wars has finally wound down save for covering the evacuation.

It is important to remember how we ended up in this mess and who made those decisions. It is equally important that we remember that Westminster (with the honourable exception of the 1945 Labour Government) has often neglected our war veterans after previous war’s ended and faded into memory. We all still need to work to ensure that never again does a Westminster Government makes the decision that dead heroes are cheaper and less trouble to remember than live ones.

THE AFGHAN TRAGEDY

When it comes to the on-going Afghan tragedy, a few quotes spring to mind, Karl Marx said "Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce." Winston Churchill said, "Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it" and “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.” When it comes to Afghanistan there is more than enough history to provide enough examples of what to do and what to avoid.

The long and bloody history of Afghanistan is littered literally with the would-be invaders who came to grief and eventually through in the towel and admitted defeat. Back in May of this year, almost unnoticed an anniversary passed, Wednesday 15th May 2021 was the thirty third anniversary of the start of the then Soviet Union’s nine month long withdrawal from Afghanistan. Around 100,000 Soviet troops had left the war torn country by February 15, 1989. This was the conclusion to ten years of brutal warfare which had killed over 14,000 Soviet soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Afghan combatants and civilians.

The Soviet withdrawal in 1989

NATO forces had been on the ground in Afghanistan since the 7th October 2001, and preparations for NATO’s withdrawal (which were originally to be completed by 2014) were finally if hastily completed this summer. Unlike their Soviet predecessors who treated much of Afghanistan as free fire zone, NATO forces were relatively restrained when it came to using their firepower - although many Afghans might have begged to differ. Despite this many people have argued that just like their Soviet predecessors NATO troops in Afghanistan found themselves engaged in waging a campaign which was "unwinnable in military terms".

‘Lessons from Afghanistan’s History for the Current Transition and Beyond’ was a thought provoking paper produced by the MOD Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre (in May 2013) it made interesting reading.  The paper noted that between 1933 to 1973, Afghanistan was stable and reasonably effectively governed, however, that stability was firmly anchored in the two pillars of traditional local governance and the Afghan state such as it was a weak centralised though weak state, both of which were gravely damaged after 1978.

Afghanistan history’s is littered with a series of chronic succession problems and associated conflict, the presidential election in 2014, saw the first peaceful transfer of leadership since 1933 and only the fourth since 1747. The paper noted that any expectations about the pace of any progress and reform should be modest and the dangers of overly ambitious reforms leading to violent reactions needed to be recognised.

‘A new approach to understanding Afghanistan’s transition’ was produced by the United States Institute for Peace also made interesting reading. This paper by way of comparison with other countries who have passed though conflict, significant military intervention and  a post conflict period of transition looked at Afghanistan and its preparedness for life after NATO. Amongst the key issues that this report flags up is the issue of foreign aid and its impact on Afghanistan.

In 2013 there was been a relative flood of papers from a whole range of military and civilian institutes studying and analysing what has happened and what might happen in Afghanistan once NATO left. Back in May 2013 I noted that our soldiers and their families and many Afghans will carry the physical and mental scars for decades, and that the politicians (at least in the West) will probably do their best to air brush Afghanistan and the consequences of NATO’s intervention and subsequent withdrawal to that of being out of site and out of mind and off the media, much like South Vietnam (in 1975). 

Saigon 1975

Back in May 2013 I wrote, as someone who has had relatives who served a number of tours in Afghanistan ( and Iraq ) who come back in one piece I will (no doubt along with more than a few other people) be more than grateful when the last NATO soldier hops on the last plane and comes home. Following NATO’S withdrawal I had little doubt that what will follow will be a public redefinition of ‘success’ at least as it is applied to Afghanistan - though the speed of the shambolic collapse of the Afghan state means that they will have a hard job justifying anything. 

Kabul 2021

The peace negotiations began the process of undermining some of the gains that some Afghan women and girls had made over the previous twenty years. President Trump’s final decision to pull out  (a decision that President Biden was never going to reverse) paved the way for the emergence of a Taliban governed unitary Afghan state which will probably complete the process of obliterating women’s human rights. The collapse leaves the Afghans (in general) and Afghan women (in particular) facing a decidedly uncertain and potentially dangerous future.