Something stinks - and I am not just referring to the noxious effluvium drifting over large sections of the city as a consequence of the floods. A powerful pong hangs in the air, too, concerning the role played in the drama by the organisation charged with the responsibility of preventing such disasters. As it was expressed to me by an angry farmer this week, in a phrase of withering contempt made famous by the late Terry-Thomas: "The Environment Agency are a bloody shower."

Instead of awarding themselves lavish bonuses for meeting a series of spurious 'targets', the top brass of this pleased-with-itself quango ought to be answering the questions of a furious public about its manifest failings. The most important one, surely, is why it appears to have abandoned the practice that would look most certain to prevent flooding - I refer to dredging and the clearing of trees and other obstacles from the waterways.

In the days of the Thames Conservancy - as a number of old timers have reminded me - this was an ongoing, round-the-clock activity, somewhat akin to the painting of the Forth Bridge. Now it is rarely, if ever, done. The Environment Agency appears to believe that dredging doesn't work. Its director of water management, Dr Geoff Mance, was asked about it by the BBC after the floods of 2003. He said: "Where it will actually help carry the floodwater safely, then we dredge to keep the capacity of the river at the level we need." But he added: "It is not possible to reduce flooding just by dredging the rivers."

Well, I suppose he is an expert. On the other hand, so is the farmer friend I referred to at the start. It was quite clear to him that much of the flooding that affected a wide swathe of West Oxford would have been avoided had waterways been cleared. "The Seacourt Stream," he explained, "used to be the width of a small river. Now it is more like a ditch."

The failings of the Environment Agency have so angered Oxford's former Lord Mayor, John Power (pictured), that he is planning to demand compensation. His particular concern, as an allotment holder, is the heavy loss of crops that he and his fellow enthusiasts suffered through the swamping of their plots off the Botley Road.

The non-expert - and I am surely that - would perhaps have guessed that a good dousing would be beneficial to plant growth, rather than the opposite. But this is to forget the peculiar nature of the water involved in the latest flooding. Fearfully eying the torrents coursing along Osney Stream, at the bottom of my garden, as the peril worsened, I noticed an almost metallic, lustre to its colouring. Those in the know said it was water from the Windrush, full of powerful fertilisers and other chemicals.

Then, after it had poured into the garden (but mercifully not into the house), I noticed its deadly nature where some plants were concerned. A large clematis, which had been flowering beautifully, withered and died within days. So, too, did a large shrub (don't ask me -I haven't a clue) immediately next to it. Over the wall, my neighbour reported that the same fate had befallen a lovely buddleia - what will the butterflies do now? - and that two laburnum trees and a vine were also clearly suffering.

This all brings a further degree of sci-fi horror to a distressing and deplorable situation.