Bouchage Plain Floods Again: Isère Underwater to Protect Lyon from Flooding

Considered an expansion reservoir for the Rhône since Napoleon III, the Bouchage plain of Isère has been under water again since Wednesday, to protect the metropolis of Lyon from flooding.

Le Figaro Lyon

The Bouchage plain is still under water this Monday. So much so that the president of the Isère department had to put on rubber boots and climb into a boat to visit some residents trapped by voluntary drowning. “Residents have been putting up with this flood for decades to protect the metropolis of Lyonrecalls Jean-Pierre Barbier (LR). I came to thank them and discuss with elected officials the possibility of creating a structure to challenge the metropolis of Lyon and neighboring departments to take their responsibilities”.

Locals are used to seeing the four municipalities of the flooded plain, as has been the case since Wednesday. It has been considered an expansion reservoir for the Rhône since a decree from Napoleon III, following the deadly floods of 1856 in Lyon. But the territory now wants to obtain compensation for this role, in the name of “upstream-downstream solidarity”as the mayor of the commune of Bouchage, Anne Pourtier (DVD), recently argued in Figaro. To reimburse roads, fields and equipment damaged by the flood. “It is logical that the metropolis takes its share of the investment and operating costs of the dikes in particularunderlines Jean-Pierre Barbier. When we created metropolises, we said that they would flow, but here it is quite the opposite”.

State compensation

The vice-president, Anne Grosperrin (EELV), visited the site last winter, specifies the metropolis at Figaro. Discussions have been initiated but the community says it has not received a formal request. On the Isère side, we talk more about the desire to create a framework for discussion. Local elected officials want to retain control over the operational aspect of flooding, for which municipal protection plans are planned. On the side of the Metropolis, it is specified that the State compensates the decree of 1858 by a participation in the name of the Barnier fund. It intervenes in the financing of pumps, for example, when there is a need for replacement.

The president of Isère wants regulatory provisions so that solidarity is not subject “at the good will of the elected officials in place”. “People are used to it here, I saw a man stuck in his house, he’s isolated but as long as it doesn’t last too long it’s fine for him, he has a full freezer, says Jean-Pierre Barbier. There is even a nurse who goes to her patients on a paddle. We must ensure that this acceptance does not become tension”. For this episode, the decline has begun, it should be complete by the end of the week. Unless the new rainy episode announced complicates things.

2023-12-19 10:27:14
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