History

Reducing Flood Risk

The Board and its predecessors have been very successful in reducing flood risk over the years, with a pedigree of over 100 years in the business. So successful in fact, that many people living and working in the area know nothing of the Internal Drainage Board and the vital work that we do to help prevent flooding and drought, protect the environment and facilitate land use.

Measuring Success

Our success is inevitably measured by what does not happen rather than what does happen, which means that if flooding or drought does not occur frequently the value of what we do is sometimes questioned. But it is precisely because we continually maintain, improve and watch over the drainage system that we are actually able to reduce the risk of flooding and drought, protect the environment and facilitate land use.

Evolution

Great strides forward have been made over the years: the system of drainage which was based on an individual’s liability to repair a particular stretch of drain gave way to the small Board centred on a particular drain or outfall. The coming of expensive machinery and modern methods resulted in their amalgamation into an organisation big enough to employ the professional staff and own the machinery and equipment essential to efficient drainage but crucially, without losing the intimate contact with the land, which is at the very heart of good drainage and water level management.

Legal Chronology

The Broads and Norfolk Rivers Internal Drainage Boards Order 2005 (Statutory Instrument 2005 No.429). This Order constituted Norfolk Rivers IDB in 2005 from an amalgamation of 7 Internal Drainage Boards:

• Middle Bure Internal Drainage Board (Gravitational Area)
• North Norfolk Internal Drainage Board
• River Wensum Internal Drainage Board
• Smallburgh Internal Drainage Board (Gravitational Area)
• Upper Bure Internal Drainage Board
• Upper Nar Internal Drainage Board
• Upper Yare and Tas Internal Drainage Board

The Norfolk Rivers Internal Drainage Board Order 2022 (Statutory Instrument 2022 No.714). This Order re-constituted Norfolk Rivers IDB with effect from 29 June 2022 to reduce the number of the Board’s elected members from 15 to 10.