Federal Member for Gilmore, Fiona Phillips, reading out a speech written by Bomaderry High School student Vihan Patel. Video supplied by Fiona Phillips MP
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00:00Today I'm delighted to read a speech written by 12-year-old Bombardier High
00:04School student Vihan Patel, the winner of the Raise Our Voice competition in
00:09Gilmore. Hi, my name is Vihan. I am 12 years old and I am from the electorate
00:15of Gilmore. I have been noticing lately that there have been a lot of water
00:19flooding problems with the winter season having heaps of rain. I have even faced
00:24one of them where my garage flooded with water up to the car's wheels and we
00:28spent five hours cleaning everything up. So my problem is to upgrade the drainage
00:34system. In 10 years I would like the community to create a rain garden. They
00:40are attractive and can be made easily by maintaining everything. They promote the
00:45growth of native flood tolerant perennial plants. The second one which I
00:49personally think is the best is planting trees in community gardens or even parks.
00:55They come with many benefits like helping reduce flooding. Statistics say
01:00that trees minimize surface water runoff by up to 80% more than asphalt. Their
01:05extensive root systems help absorb deeper into the ground and help absorb
01:10the water flooded to help the tree grow and make community gardens or parks
01:14beautiful living places. Parliament can also build more channel drains to move
01:20water to an area where it can safely be pushed back into the environment. Those
01:24are the ways to reduce flooding and how I want some of these techniques in our
01:28community in the next 10 years.