On October 23 last year, the rain came down hard in Bermuda, filling up tanks, flooding roads and leading weather-watchers to speculate that it might be a record downpour.
An epic 7.62 inches of rain fell, making it the second wettest day on record.
Architect Colin Campbell says climate change will make such downpours less unusual and will place a strain on the island’s infrastructure that we must prepare for.
“We’ve had eight inches of rain over a hurricane period … but to have 7.6 inches of rainfall in 80 minutes – that is biblical,” he said.
“It was like 5.8 inches of rain per hour. Our facilities are made to manage two to three inches per hour … in a big storm. What would happen if we had multiple of those?”
It’s a question many are asking. A report prepared for the Ministry of Home Affairs last year predicted that the future would be characterised by more intense hurricanes with greater rainfall, putting the island’s critical infrastructure at risk.
‘Roads become rivers’
Mr Campbell, the manager of OBMI Bermuda, said it was imperative that Bermuda’s leaders look ahead and begin thinking outside the box to tackle the issues.
“We have to basically plan for resiliency and plan for erratic things,” he said. “We need to better understand now what would be the likely effects of an enormous deluge and how do we then manage that.”
One suggestion is for a radical rethink of Bermuda’s roads, which are made of impermeable asphalt, meaning they can’t absorb water.
Mr Campbell said: “The roads become rivers, and those rivers then need a place to settle and it will take some time because all of the surfaces are hard. You’re going to overwhelm your drains because your drains are not built for the volume of water.”
He said asphalt had been in use here since 1947 – “which is not even 100 years, so not exactly that deeply ingrained” – but was itself contributing to climate change as a petroleum carbon product which is coloured black with bitumen, also a petroleum constituent.
“The issue here is: should we be covering our roads with asphalt?” he asked. His conclusion is that Bermuda would do better to turn to a “solution which is as old as the Romans and older” — roads made from brick.
Learn from the Dutch
Mr Campbell is interested in hydropath technology, which involves permeable bricks made from post-industrial porcelain tiles ground into a paste, that help manage surface water.
“Any water goes right through it, just like a sponge,” he said, adding that such bricks could make a huge difference in flood-prone areas.
Mr Campbell recognises that resurfacing the whole island would be no small task but, with less than 200 miles of road, he believes it’s doable.
“It’s not like we are going to get it done over the weekend but, if we started in some key areas and start working our way up to the perimeters, we would over the course of maybe five years of thereabouts, eliminate the asphalt road surfaces,” he said.
He described how in the Netherlands wide machines are used to lay road bricks “almost like a bedding”, eliminating the need for manual labour to lay them individually.
Cut the potholes
Switching to brick would mean the island’s roads would not need to be black, which would help with heat reduction.
“We can, in fact, mimic our traditional Bermuda roads, which were a light grey,” he said. “They were cool.
“There is real evidence that if we cool down our roads, we will take the temperature down in our environment, which will make the living experience here in Bermuda that much more acceptable.”
Another plus would be fewer potholes because asphalt deteriorates in the heat in a way that bricks would not. “We’re placing a product on our roads which … every year is being tested to its extremes and is being broken down.
“Economically, I think we’ve just about run the course with asphalt.”
Looking beyond the roads to the fields, the Netherlands provides Mr Campbell with inspiration for another solution for tackling greater rainfall in the future and its potential effect on farming and food production.
“A field does not do well with five inches of rain in an hour,” he said. “If we have five inches of rain per hour for more than just a couple of hours … it could have a very detrimental effect.
[The Netherlands has] enormous great sheds that allow for production under protection and also manage the amount of water than can pour through into the fields.
“The Netherlands is the second largest importer of food and farm products to the world in dollars, so I think they know what they are doing.”
He added: “The difference between the Netherlands and Bermuda is that our structures will have to be reinforced to take high winds.”
Understanding climate change
Mr Campbell said Bermuda had much to teach the world about how to withstand the weather, from its hurricane-resistant stone buildings to its traditional white roofs, which help to reduce heat.
However, he said the country also had to be prepared to change its “pattern of thinking and pattern of doing things” if it was to continue to thrive.
“With climate change, it’s not a question of whether you believe it, it’s whether you understand it,” he added.
“The world has recognised that the amount of carbon going into the atmosphere is having an adverse effect on weather patterns and it’s been borne out by not only our own immediate experience, but by ice studies in Antarctica and in the Arctic.
“The fact of the matter is that the biggest disruption of our lives is hurtling at us and that’s climate change.”
