one year after the start of the ordeal of the victims, an update on the progress of the work

After 630 emergency operations, 170 projects are completed, underway or under study in Pas-de-Calais. A better one. Clearly. But none of them will, for the moment, make it possible to cope with 100-year floods like last year.

In a photograph taken in the summer of 2023, like an Amazonian feel. However, we are in the hinterland of Calais. For three weeks, 140 linear meters of the Liette canal have been maintained. Cost of the project: 10,000 euros. A first in several decades. “We allow the flow of a small canal again by clearing brush and cutting down the trees which prevent the evacuation of the water”explains Frédérique Barbet, head of the canals service – Intercommunal Institution of Wateringues.

Work that seems relatively simple, but nevertheless essential, to allow the free flow of water. Agathe Cury, sub-prefect of Calais explains that “Nothing is trivial, everything is important. We don't know what the next few months have in store for us. And, in any case, We need to get into the habit of very regular maintenance.”

Targeted cleanings, reinforced banks, consolidated dikes… Since January, more than 630 emergency operations have been carried out in the department's waterways. Repairs, before the launch of more structuring work.

On this map: projects finalized, in progress or under study : 170 operations in total in the department.

Including that of a retention basin to protect Neuville-sous-Montreuil, flooded several times last winter.

The goal is to initially contain the water and then allow it to flow at a controlled pace and avoid sudden flooding.

Isabelle Thirode, sub-prefect of Montreuil-sur-Mer, on retention basins

Agricultural land was ceded to allow the creation of this basin. Its capacity will be 4,000 m³.

“The goal is to initially contain the water and then allow it to flow at a controlled pace and avoid sudden flooding”Isabelle Thirode, sub-prefect of Montreuil-sur-Mer. A territory remodeled to try to avoid a new catastrophe.

But none of these projects is sized to cope with the scale of last winter's floods. The equivalent of a hundred and a half year flood.

A new work plan, spread out throughout 2025, is being developed. To strengthen, as much as possible, the resilience of an entire territory.

Report by M. Vanlaton and A. Domy with S. Gurak, V. Cruard, A. Fuzellier. Edited by A. Chantoiseau. Infographic C. Detezdeladreve. Edited by E. Pall

>> See also : The report by Mr. Schelcher and M.-N.Grimaldi broadcast during the special program devoted to floods, one after Thursday November 7, 2024

Three successive floods, 800 homes affected, or one in five inhabitants. “We are always afraid that it will start again”say residents today when it rains… So, several of them do not hesitate to also say “Next time we will leave”.