Floodwaters may carry a wide range of contaminants, including hazardous chemicals, potential carcinogens and biological hazards. These pose a significant health risk to both SES operational personnel and members of the general community who may be exposed during these flood events.
This project aims to:
- Identify key hazards, biological and chemical, present in the flood water
- Assess the associated health risks for SES personnel including long-term health impacts
- Propose effective mitigation strategies to reduce risk from exposure to flood waters. Note: elimination of the risk by not entering flood water is not possible in all instances
- The project will review current literature to gather insights on floodwater contamination, identify and analyse existing water quality datasets that may reveal patterns or risks. A standardised survey protocol will be developed for sampling floodwaters across a variety of environments, including
- riverine
- urban flash floods
- stagnant inland waters.