The move follows a recommendation by an independent review panel, which was a by product of the floods experienced in the summer of 2007.
Letters will be sent in March to all homes and businesses to be signed up.
Alan Proctor, the flood risk manager, warned “One in nine homes in Wales are at risk of flooding from rivers and the sea” and stated that “By signing up almost 40,000 extra homes and businesses, we will almost double the number on our system, giving more people vital time to get prepared for flooding, protecting lives and property.”
Environment Agency Wales is urging everyone to check its website for more information about preparing for the risk of flooding.
This comes off the back of the news last week that Wales is to spend £13.3 million to improve its flood defences. Clearly the Welsh are taking strong steps to try and minimise the threat caused by flooding and are learning from previous mistakes. However, had they not taken action on the recommendations from this independent report, then there might have been a possibility that if someone suffered injury due to flooding and the recommendations within the report would have prevented flooding then they might have been held accountable for that injury.
Therefore not only are they protecting the public by addressing the problem early, they are also protecting themselves from the risk of someone making a claim.