The end of the rue de la Courcy construction site marks another step on the – long – list of work carried out by the Paimpol municipality to protect the city from flooding. A fight which does not date from yesterday and which is not the prerogative of the current team in charge. But which was revived by the heavy flooding in the Goasmeur area, at the time of the passage of storm Alex, in October 2020. Then, again, in June 2022, during a stormy episode which had seen the sectors of Place du Champ-de-foire, Kerpalud and Plounez particularly affected.
No more rainwater to evacuate
Rue de Courcy, it was the SRC company which intervened in March, before the coating was finalized in recent weeks. The project, worth a total of €170,000, included a complete repair of the rainwater network. And the change in undersized pipes due, in particular, to the construction of the Happy Senior residence on the site of the former Courcy school. “The surface area of roofs, and therefore the volumes of rainwater collected, has increased considerably,” noted the technical services. The evacuation, whose diameter has been doubled, now opens at the level of the freshly rehabilitated Champ-de-Foire basin. And was disconnected from the collectors of Place du Martray, who are thus relieved.
Soon the start of work at Croix-aux-Outils
Furthermore, the studies carried out in the Croix-aux-Outils sector, also impacted by the latest episodes of flooding, suggest a substantial work program. And which is more broadly part of the set of measures taken to rationalize flows throughout the entire sub-watershed, from Kerraoul to Avenue de Guerland. The investment will be substantial: “€600,000,” said Jacky Gouault, works assistant, last February, and who then hoped for a three-year period.
The first works there would be imminent. As a reminder, the aim is, ultimately, to have a second retention basin, complementing the one already existing in Guerland. Powered by larger diameter nozzles – again – and capable of accelerating the evacuation of rainwater.
A global strategy
Work which is the responsibility of the municipality, but for which the agglomeration also has competence, including the Gemapi competence framework (Management of aquatic environments and flood prevention and its flood prevention component). And this is also a challenge for future years: Paimpol will remain vulnerable as long as a global strategy to slow down flows, on the scale of the Quinic watershed, is not fully implemented.
“We know the problem: there is a bottleneck and funnel effect,” explained to Télégramme, in 2010, a former director of technical services in Paimpol, at the time of discussions around the PPRI. In essence, if a maximum amount of water can be retained in the upstream municipalities of Plourivo, Kerfot, or Yvias, the respite for Paimpol will only be increased with each episode of heavy rain. Work is well carried out, like that undertaken recently on the upper course of the coastal river. But for the Paimpolais who have to mop up, with almost every flood, the time always seems too long.
