The importance of flood prevention

The Importance Of Flood Prevention

Every year the population continues to grow, and urbanisation increases pressure on the water system. If not managed carefully, this build-up of pressure can quickly lead to catastrophic flooding that has significant consequences for businesses. It is therefore important that businesses have a plan in place to mitigate and protect themselves from floods.

Every business has a potential risk of flooding, not just those located nearby rivers and seas. When a catastrophic flood does emerge, approximately 40% of UK businesses have to close down after suffering repercussions. SMEs are often the worst affected by floods due to their extreme financial loss that can last over months. So what actions can you take now to protect your business from floods?

Tips to protect your business from floods

The aftermath of flooding is often very costly and typically involves replacing many business assets. The good news is there are several inexpensive tips that you can implement to help protect your business from a flood.

• Store expensive business equipment and important documents on upper floor buildings or on shelves and tables on ground floors.
• Landscape around your business premise or use permeable surfaces in car parks (e.g. gravel) to help improve surface water drainage.
• Ensure main entrances and outside doors have flood barriers.
• Keep any vehicles in garages or storage units on site or park on higher ground near the business premise.
• If your business is located in an area which has a high risk of flooding, consider installing sump pump water drainage systems.

Check for leaks

An undetected leak can quickly escalate to expensive damages. Check for any signs of a leak, for instance: water damage; or a drastic increase in your water bill where you cannot account for the excess water consumption. Businesses can easily track their water usage by installing AMR devices. Not only will these devices help to improve your water efficiency, but they are also often the first indication that your business has a leak.

Improving business water habits

There are many reasons that flooding occurs, one of them being the backlog of water from blocked drains. The build-up of fats, oils and grease (FOG) in sewers is a man-made cause that could easily be resolved by changing our behaviour. Flushing away plastics and pouring crumbs down the sink all builds up into underground masses in the drainage networks known as fatbergs. Switch to better business water habits to improve your business drainage systems and ultimately help prevent flooding.

Business water contingency plans

Be mindful that different types of floods (e.g. groundwater, sewer, surface water) can have various effects on your business, so it is important to prepare accordingly. Create a business water contingency plan to ensure your business is protected for when a flood does arise.

Remember preparation is key! These plans could be the difference between business survival since most long-term flooding effects are not covered in standard business insurance policies.

Make sure you are also signed up to receive flood warning texts or emails for your business location. Flash floods often happen overnight, and nobody wants to wake up to a flooded business premise the next day.