After the floods comes the time for the flood to recede and the damage to be assessed. The mayor of Rive-de-Gier (Rhône), invited this Saturday on RMC, estimates them at several tens of millions of euros. The elected official also wants to think about the future: “With climate change, we should discover the river. It’s a project that takes time but nature moves much faster than us.”
The municipalities of the South-West and South-East affected by the significant floods that occurred on Thursday and Friday are healing their wounds. Now it’s time to take stock and assess the damage. This Sunday, only one department is placed on orange alert for flooding.
In Rive-de-Gier, in the Loire, “the solidarity between residents warms the heart”, confided this Saturday on RMC the mayor of the town, Vincent Bony, who “waits for recognition of a natural disaster”. If the elected official considers that it is “too early to assess the damage”, he recognizes fears about “rainwater assessment networks for underground networks”.
At least “several tens of millions of euros” of damage in Rive-de-Gier
“We saw geysers forming in the city at certain times. The networks could not withstand the enormous pressure in the pipes. It will be a significant cost of several tens of millions of euros, that’s for sure “, he anticipates.
“We have to prepare, with the climate changeto face risks and disasters more and more often. I think prevention costs less than repair,” the Prime Minister said on Friday. Michel Barnier.
Same story for the Minister of Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, who estimated Thursday evening that these “massive” rainy episodes were “linked to climate change”.
Today’s guest: Vincent Bony – 20/10
Experts advocate an end to concreting
And to deal with these disruptions, some experts are advocating a paradigm shift, particularly in urban planning, notably the end of the artificialization of soils around rivers and flood-prone areas. The concreteization of soils and new constructions thus become aggravating factors.
“An unprecedented level of unpredictability”
An observation shared by Vincent Bony, whose town had already been affected by a flood in 2008. “Poor maintenance of the roads and the river had created comparable damage”. The mayor recalls, however, that for the current episode, anticipation could not take place, evoking a “never before reached level of unpredictability”.
“Thursday morning, Météo France announced a maximum of 40 mm of rain. At 2 p.m., we already had 120.” Red alerts were issued by Météo France the same day, for the departments concerned.
The elected official therefore recognizes the need to rethink urban planning, in particular by decanalizing the river. “The elders, before the 1914 war, wanted to cover the river. We finished in 1982, to save space for cars,” he recalls. Today, “with climate change, we have to discover it,” he believes.
“If we deconstruct, how do we rehouse?”
The mayor of Rive-de-Gier acknowledges, however, that such a project would take decades “and nature moves much faster than us”. Also, questions arise: “If we deconstruct houses, how do we relocate residents, public services and traders?”
“The more we build around it, the more we channel the rivers, the more we concrete, the more the water has only one path to pass through,” hydrologist Laurie Caillouet explained yesterday to RMC. “It won’t be able to go to certain places and flood a field. There will still be damage but it will be less significant.”
