Manuel Valls put the measures taken at “several hundred million euros”.
The French government examined on Wednesday January 8 a bill for the reconstruction of Mayotte, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean devastated by Cyclone Chido, a text which should allow the “very rapid” implementation of measures.
Chido, the most devastating cyclone in Mayotte in 90 years, caused the death of at least 39 people on December 14 and left more than 5,600 injured, according to the latest report published by the authorities.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, it has also “completely destroyed” the precarious housing where 100,000 people live, in this poorest department in France.
This text must “facilitate the accommodation and support of the population, as well as the reconstruction or repair of damaged infrastructure and housing,” declared Overseas Minister Manuel Valls during the report of the council of ministers.
He estimated the measures taken at “several hundred million euros”.
For longer-term “structural” measures, particularly around questions of immigration, security and economic development, the government is planning another draft “program law” which will be drawn up within three months.
A text “probably incomplete”
Main innovation, the text aims to waive “for two years” the rules of town planning and public procurement, to facilitate the reconstruction of schools but also of infrastructure and housing affected by the “most serious civil security crisis that the country has known since the Second World War”, according to Manuel Valls.
Concerning schools, hard hit while Mayotte is the youngest department in France, “the State or one of its public establishments” will be able to ensure their construction, reconstruction or renovation in place of local authorities until December 31, 2027 .
The minister recognized that the text was “no doubt incomplete”, evoking in particular “other very urgent measures” such as the fight against illegal housing, which does not appear in the bill, or that against immigration irregular.
“We will not let Mayotte become a shanty island again,” he insisted, in particular by increasing “the resources for law enforcement.”
“This is a delicate issue that cannot be resolved by snapping our fingers,” stressed the minister, while many residents of the informal neighborhoods of the archipelago have already rebuilt their homes.
“I will be very clear, the priority for us is the reconstruction of the houses, the roofs of the Mahorais,” he continued, excluding the rehousing of slum dwellers – often undocumented Comorians – so as not to give a “bonus to irregular immigration”.
