in Belgium, municipalities are learning lessons from the 2021 floods

Two and a half years after deadly floods in the Liège region, the affected towns are rebuilding with one objective: not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

It was in July 2021: spectacular floods affected several regions of Belgium, causing 39 deaths and significant damage. Two and a half years after the trauma, land redevelopment work has just been launched in the Liège region. The excavators are busy among the rubble. Below, the Vesdre river flows peacefully today, but it is the river that ravaged Pepinster. “It was a real tsunamisays Philippe Godin, the mayor of this town. We saw the water rising inexorably, sweeping away everything in its path.”

The town has 9,000 inhabitants, who are currently living at the pace of the work. It was almost the construction site of the century for Pepinster: 1,400 houses were damaged by the flood, some collapsed. Others, around forty, still have to be demolished. “Pepinster has never been so disfigured, and now transformedunderlines Philippe Godin. It was worse than the 39-45 war !”

Madeline will remember these torrential floods all her life: “During the night, the water rose and reached the first floor. And at 6 a.m., we had to escape through the roof. We slid along the roof, we walked on the cornice … We saw houses fall while people were on the roof.” His house is one of the few still standing on his street. But it’s impossible to live there: the foundations are too fragile. It will soon be demolished.

“Give more space to water”

Obviously there is no question of rebuilding identically. The objective is to give more space to the river, explains the mayor. “We are going to lower the level of the banks, ‘renature’ the banks to allow the water to take its place in the event of a new flood. We must break the plug which existed at the confluence between the Vesdre and the Hoëgne.”

The power plant will even be moved. But the municipality still has to buy certain buildings, and negotiations with the owners are not over. Christelle, for example, was able to return to her house with her family a year ago. The foundations were not damaged.

In her brand new kitchen with a view of the Vesdre, she finds it difficult to consider leaving her house: “Everything has been replastered, rebuilt. And now my house has to be destroyed to make way for the water… A pre-assessment was carried out, at 140 000 euros. For a four-bedroom house, with garden, completely redone ! It’s not feasible, it’s our life, too ! If we have to start all over again it’s very complicated for us, and especially for our children.”

Eight municipalities in the Liège region are affected by this work, in which “we must build differentlyinsists Jacques Teller, professor of town planning and regional planning at the University of Liège. Major plans to move the population from the valley floors to the plateaus were never considered. Step back 50 meters or 100 meters may be sufficient to shelter the population. In the valley floors, it is a question of leaving more room for water, and therefore in a certain number of cases removing buildings that are too exposed.”

“Today, alongside technical protection measures, such as walls to protect inhabited areas, we are thinking more and more about working with space, with nature.”

Jacques Teller

at franceinfo

Not everything is at stake in the cities: specialists also recommend replanting hedges that have been uprooted in the fields; or, in forests, to replant deciduous trees which have the advantage of capturing water better than the conifers which were planted in the 19th century.