‘Feels like a losing battle’: the fight against flooding in Somerset

Flood water is pumped out near Moorland, in Somerset. Local campaigners have called for the Northmoor pumping station to be upgraded. Photograph: Jim Wileman/The Guardian

Since medieval monks started draining and managing the Somerset Levels, humans have struggled to live and work alongside water.

“At the moment it feels like a losing battle,” said Mike Stanton, the chair of the Somerset Rivers Authority. “Intense rainfall is hitting us more often because of climate change. It may be that in the next 50 years, perhaps in the next 20, some homes around here will have to be abandoned.”