The Gard Departmental Council supports Symadrem regarding work to strengthen the dikes of the Petit Rhône. The State is changing its tune, arousing the ire of elected officials regarding the protection of residents.
This work is carried out by Symadrem, an interregional joint association for the development of the dikes of the Rhône delta and the sea. The Rhône Plan was created following the floods that occurred in 1993 and 1994 in the island Camargue, then in December 2003. on the right bank of the Rhône and Petit Rhône. Symadrem was then set up, carrying out €220M of work to date. The Gard Departmental Council also provided €6M in subsidies in 2020, or 30% of the total cost of €30M.
56 km of levees to 15.5 km of works
However, the State requested a review of the project. The plan went from €30 million to protect 30,000 people by carrying out work on 56 km of dikes to 15.5 km of dikes, protecting only 12,000 people. A solution “in total break with the principle of upstream – downstream solidarity and solidarity between the different banks of the Rhône”, denounced by some of the elected officials gathered at a meeting of the Departmental Council a few days ago.
From 30,000 people to 12,000 people protected
As mayor of Grau-du-Roi and president of Terre de Camargue, Robert Crauste recalls that “during the last dike breaches, the Rhône arrived at the gates of Aigues-Mortes, the Gard Camargue remained under water for 85 days”. For the city councilor, this change is a form “abandonment of the Gard Camargue”even though the inhabitants “waiting for the work for 20 years”.
Elected officials request prefects
Symadrem elected officials ask the two prefects to “respect the commitments of the State”and to submit to public inquiry the environmental authorization file submitted in 2022 and suspended since. They are calling for work to start in 2025.
