British PM announces 40 mln pounds for flood defences

British Prime Minister David Cameron announced Sunday a package of more than 40 million pounds (59 million U.S. dollars) to improve flood defences and deal with the aftermath of Storm Eva.

About 10 million pounds of the new funding will be use to improve flood barrier in York, north England, which was overwhelmed by storms during the past weeks.

The other 30 million pounds will be spent repairing defences on several rivers in Yorkshire, including Wharfe, Calder, Aire, Ouse and Derwent. It will include repairs to pumping and barriers and clearing blockages in rivers.

Cameron said he has seen the devastation caused by flooding, and the work of repairing and improving flood defences is vital.

"We are already spending 280 million pounds over the next six years to protect thousands of houses from flooding in Yorkshire as part of our 2.3 billion pounds investment to protect 300,000 houses across the country," he said.

The new funding package will fix flood defences and make them more resilient to further bad weather, he added.

So far, the total government's investment in recovery from Storm Eva and Storm Desmond amounts to nearly 200 million pounds.

The prime minister also appointed Transport Minister Robert Goodwill as the Flooding Envoy to oversee the flooding response in Yorkshire.

However, the 40 million pounds package has been accused of a "short-term" solution, while British government is also blamed for cutting down flood defence spending in the past few years, which had left large parts of Britain in danger.

Environment Agency on Sunday said further heavy rain would hit parts of southwest England later on Sunday and into Monday across parts of northeast England. (1 British pound=1.48 U.S. dollars) Endit