The strong Rhône flood at the end of June devastated a residential area and an industrial site in Sierre. Between a natural disaster and a politico-administrative shipwreck, present time investigated this disaster which was announced.
On the night of June 29, 2024, the Rhône overflowed in Sierre, flooding the district of Subgigonde and ravaging the aluminum production site. Miraculously, no human loss is to be deplored, but dozens of families see their lives rocking, forced to leave their accommodation in the middle of the night. They can never come back.
The undergrowth dwellings, with modest rents, dated from the beginning of the 20th century, built by the aluminum industry located in front, on the other bank of the Rhône.
Present time investigated to understand why several families had to leave everything and feel abandoned by the authorities today. Cem Peksam lost not only the house where he lived with his family, but also the dream of a life, the restaurant he was going to open two days later in the neighborhood.
>> Review the images of the flood of June 30, 2024:
Could this disaster have been avoided?
This disaster is not a surprise: for decades, the floods of the Rhône threaten the valley between Gletsch and Lake Geneva, despite two historical corrections of the river to contain its overflows.
Titanic works have been undertaken since the end of the 19th century, increasingly stemming the river, which allowed the agricultural, industrial and urban development of the valley. But the Rhône, channeled on 160 kilometers like few rivers in Europe, is still overflowing. And he does not warn. The damage can be considerable.
How then to secure the plain by anticipating floods as rare as they are exceptional, but certainly devastating?
The site of the century launched
In the early 2000s, the approach changed radically. Instead of strengthening its pipeline, the third correction of the Rhône plans to widen the river bed over 160 kilometers. The project is then in line with the evolution of federal legislation on rivers. It is therefore a question of giving grounds to the Rhône to better contain his overflows, either braking his floods and therefore absorbing them.
The project is titanic – its budget will reach 3.4 billion francs – and must take place over several decades, starting with a long and essential study phase. But in the most risky sectors, priority measures are planned, to materialize as quickly as possible. This is the case in Sierre (Central Valais) and Visp (Haut-Valais).
But local oppositions, conflicts of interest and budgetary constraints will quickly delay the implementation of the project. While the priority work is carried out in the breeding, effectively protecting the local industrial zone under the pressure of the Lonza chemical giant, nothing is undertaken in Sierre, yet identified as a particularly delicate section. The river is very cramped there, surrounded by industrial buildings, houses, very low bridges and a cliff.
Back on break announced in 2024
An element will radically change the situation: in 2021, the UDC Haut -Valaisan Franz Rupen, freshly elected to the Council of State, takes up the file with the clearly displayed intention to revise – down – what many have baptized ” the project of the century “.
The turn is steep. The project is suspended, causing unprecedented shields among specialists in watercourse.
Jean-Pierre Jordan, who was responsible for Rhône 3 at the Federal Environment Office, the organization responsible for managing the financing of the project, is amazed by the brutality of the turnaround and the weakness of his argument: “There To a scientific reality and the R3 project was based on legislation, scientific concepts which are valid for all of Switzerland, so we cannot question like that, “he said.
->> Reread on this subject: The project of the third correction of the Rhône turns to the battle of experts
To revise, you will have to review everything, starting with the protective objectives deemed too high. The risk linked to floods would have been overestimated and the whole would be disproportionate, according to the report of the engineer-consultant Christophe Voyame, mandated by the State of Valais for A global analysis made public in late May 2024.
The opponents of the third correction of the Rhône are delighted: “The dangers, the risks have been overestimated to justify the very high costs for the work. But these costs are in fact due to the security that we want to bring , but linked to environmental, biological aspects “, Estem Blaise Melly, UDC deputy in the Valais Parliament.
A flood a month later
A month later, the Rhône flood devastated the Sub-Geronde district, where the third correction of the Rhône was not implemented. “The Sierre area has been identified as a risk area, with priority measures. If actions had been done, the flood would have certainly been significantly reduced”, Deplores Serge Gaudin, director of Novelis, who manufactures aluminum sheets for high -end automobile brands.
Production is stopped for more than two months, with disastrous consequences. For Porsche, which is supplied exclusively to Sierre for the sheets of its cars, the factory stops has resulted in a billion euros in losses, or 17,000 non -produced vehicles.
>> The report of 7:30 p.m. two months after the flood:
The undergrowth drama highlights the gaps in a system mired in political and administrative quarrels. The railway bridge, classified as heritage, becomes a natural dam which will brutally cause flood, while houses built in the Rhône bed, also classified, prevent the necessary widening of the river.
A commission of inquiry created in the fall of 2024 by the Valais Parliament must shed light on the causes of the disaster and the responsibilities.
>> Read on this subject: The Valais Parliament wants a commission of inquiry into the delay in the Rhône correction work
But there is also another gray area, more discreet and which has amplified the distress of the flood disaster victims: the lack of effective support on the part of the State. After the first two weeks of direct management, public aid turned out to be almost nonexistent. The inhabitants of Subgéronde, most of whom have modest incomes, had to rely on the chain of happiness to be able to survive. Insurance struggles to cover real losses, plunging many families into uncertainty and precariousness.
>> Read on this subject: A district of Sierre always crowded with waste five months after the bad weather that flooded it
While waiting for a hypothetical revival of the work on the Rhône, a question will remain: how long and how will the inhabitants of Valais live under the threat of the river, amplified by climate change?
Corinne Portier/Cab
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