By
Jerome Cavaretta
Published on
May 25, 2024 at 11:46 a.m.
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Mageo in the crosshairs. Friday May 17, 2024, around fifty people including environmental activists and elected officials from Cergy, Méry-sur-Oise and Butry-sur-Oise (Val-d’Oise), participated in the France nature appeal Environment Val-d’Oise, at a public meeting dedicated to the project to bring the Oise to European standard (Mageo). “A crazy project”, according to the environmental association which wants to inform Valdoisiens of the risks and consequences that Mageo, which announces the navigation of giant barges, poses on the banks of the Oise.
“We can talk about mega-barges since they will be 180 m long and 11.40 m wide and we can worry about the damage they will cause,” pointed out Jérôme Durieux, member of Fne Val-d’ Oise and leader (Generation.s) of the Merysian opposition.
Endangered fauna and flora
Noise pollution, accelerated erosion of the banks due to the churning of these large aircraft, damage to fauna and flora, risk of flooding in the event of high floods despite the installation of a retention dam… Grievances against Mageo do not miss.
Supported by Vnf (Voies navigables de France) and presented as ecological because it should promote river freight, Mageo nevertheless carries its share of concerns and questions. “We could say why not more transport of goods by river, except that we risk having twice as much traffic on the Oise and that Mageo will enter into competition with rail freight,” indicates Jérome Durieux. Mageo is a 430 million euro project. Wouldn’t this money be better used for rail freight? This project will have consequences on our banks. They are fragile and deserve to be maintained to preserve the fauna and flora and for the well-being of the inhabitants. »
Mageo will be subject to public inquiry at the end of the year. Until then, his opponents have only one watchword: mobilize again and again to inform the Valdoisiens of the danger that awaits them.
Landmarks
Supported by Voies navigables de France (Vnf), the project to bring the Oise to European standard (Mageo), which will be submitted to a public inquiry at the end of the year, plans to dig the bed of the Oise over 42 kilometers, between Creil and Compiègne, and guarantee an anchorage of 4 meters (compared to 3 meters today). The declared aim of the maneuver: to allow super-barges to transport up to 4,400 tonnes of goods and to connect the Seine basin to that of the Escaut, via the future Seine-Nord-Europe canal, the delivery of which is planned for 2030. This new European corridor which will connect the ports of Le Havre, Rouen, Paris, Dunkirk, Antwerp, Liège and Rotterdam-Amsterdam should boost the development of river freight and reduce heavy goods vehicle traffic. The latest news is that the total cost of Mageo is estimated at 430 million euros.
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