Flooding and Scottish Water’s responsibilities

• To report a flooding incident which appears to be contaminated with sewage phone our Customer Helpline on 0845 601 8855. See our leaflet “Flooding: Roles and Responsibilities” (pdf) to find out more about wastewater flooding.
  
• Contact your Local Authority if the flood appears to be from road drainage.

Scottish Water is working with key partners to reduce the impact of flooding.  The responsibilities surrounding flooding are varied, and at present a number of agencies have responsibility for dealing with different aspects of flooding in Scotland. 

Conventional urban drainage systems are made up of a complex network of sewer pipes, overflows, gullies, burns and culverts (covered watercourses).  Ownership and duties are split between various agencies and landowners.

• Scottish Water has the public drainage duty and is responsible for the drainage of rainwater run-off from roofs and any paved ground surface within the property boundary.  Scottish Water also protects homes from flooding caused by sewers either surcharging or becoming restricted due to chokes or collapses. 
• Local Authorities are responsible for the drainage of local roads and public highways. The local authorities are responsible for dealing with tidal and river flooding and flooding caused by extreme rainfall.  They are also responsible for providing flood defences and maintaining watercourses.
• The Scottish Government is responsible for motorway and major trunk roads drainage through Transport Scotland.  The Government is responsible for making national policy on planning, flood prevention and flood warning.
• Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is responsible for providing flooding advice and flood warnings that can be found on their website www.sepa.org.uk/flooding

The complex nature of flooding – with many agencies responsible for different aspects of sewer and drainage systems in communities – means that a partnership approach is needed to tackle this serious problem.  We are starting to develop Surface Water Management Plans for urban areas to reduce the impact of flooding, in Glasgow this is being done through the Metropolitan Glasgow Strategic Drainage Plan

We worked in partnership with the Scottish Government, SEPA and Local Authorities on the new Flood Risk Managment Bill which will reduce overall flood risk and improve how Scotland deals with all types of flooding in the future.