For 150 years, rivers have been straightened, dredged and narrowed, usually to release land for cultivation or development. Now, the river has been reconnected to natural floodplains, using leaky dams and punching cuts into the bank so water spills out and resumes its slower paleo course. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsIn Lancashire’s Ribble Valley, leaky dams are all the rage. Jack Spees is director of the Ribble Rivers Trust, which in February this year netted a £25 million grant from the Environment Agency for flood defence. We will be upscaling with six new projects, installing hundreds of leaky dams.