A device aimed at protecting Paris and preventing the Seine from overflowing has been tested since Wednesday, January 15, upstream of the river which crosses the capital.
Necessary infrastructure to limit damage. While France has, for several years, been experiencing major episodes of flooding, particularly in the southern part of the country, a system aimed at overflowing the Seine.
The system, installed in the Bassée territory (straddling the Seine-et-Marne and Aube departments), includes an area of 360 hectares, surrounded by a 7.6 kilometer dike, in which the Surplus water will be injected in the event of flooding, in order to free the river.
In fact, several pumps are supposed, when the water level rises, to shift the waves in the structure of more than 10 million cubic meters – the equivalent of 4,000 Olympic swimming pools with a depth of 2 meters – the installation of which ultimately cost 114 million euros in total.
This operation should make it possible to lower the level of the Seine downstream “up to 15 centimeters”, indicated those responsible for the project.
-A contested device
If the president of Seine Grands Lacs Patrick Ollier, manager of this work, was delighted with a “mission accomplished” yesterday during the visit to the site, other territorial actors were more reserved.
“We are worried […] especially concerning the risk of flooding that there may be in the village,” explained the mayor of Châtelay-sur-Seine Stéphanie Banos a few days ago, whose commune shares the presence of the site with Balloy, Égligny and Gravon.
For his part, Jean-François Dupont, co-president of France Nature Environnement Seine-et-Marne, regretted an “upheaval (for biodiversity) induced by this gigantic construction site”, in relation to the “gains on floods” which remains “disproportionate » according to him. His collective has also filed, with others, an appeal to the administrative court against this pool.
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