内容摘要：Although the scene has left numerous residents feeling uneasy, there are other locals who find the circumstances "novel".

Although the scene has left numerous residents feeling uneasy, there are other locals who find the circumstances "novel".

As well as helping with flood prevention, sponge citiesto provide wider benefits, such as more community green spaces, better air and water quality and improved biodiversity.

Sewerage and rainwater are often carried in the same pipes in the UK. When there's heavy rainfall the system can be overwhelmed, leading tointo our waterways. These can causeFrom cities with more than a million residents like

in New Zealand to small "" in Kenya, many places have used the concept to try to tackle surface flooding.

What constitutes sponginess is difficult to quantify.

London has an array of green spaces and there are an estimated"We do care work because we actually do care, you have to have a lot of care courage and you have to be committed to it.

"Dementia patients can be a challenge but if a resident wants something, we try and give it to them," said Ms Rieta.Nadra Ahmed, the chair of the National Care Association, said: "The reality is that we can't recruit local people to undertake this critical role, so we have had to choose the more costly route of using the foreign visa scheme, which was put in place to tackle the workforce crisis we faced in the sector post Brexit and Covid.

"Without [the visa scheme] we will have to limit what we can deliver, and in some cases that will mean the services are not viable."They will have no options but to close and this will impact of those we support."