Because of the drought, more and more cracked houses in Berries. The phenomenon is explained by the composition of the soil. In Indre and Cher, they are very clayey, and clay is sensitive to temperature changes. The soils swell when it rains, generally in the fall, and shrink in the summer, due to a lack of precipitation. In Aize, a small town near Vatan in Indre, the damage is particularly visible. The village, of barely 110 inhabitants, has more than twenty victims.
“My house is worth nothing”
At the exit of the village is a small house with walls covered with yellow roughcast. But above all, cracks on both sides. The slits are so deep that Isabelle can slip her hand through them. “The cracks are several centimeters and get bigger from year to year. The insulation is also cracked, the rain and the cold seep in, my house is no longer airtight”she laments.
– Justine Claux
Inside his house, the wallpaper peeled off due to humidity. It leaves bare walls eaten away by mould. “My house is no longer worth anything, I’m depressed. I wonder what I’ll become and where I’ll live, my house will end up being uninhabitable”worries Isabelle.
– Justine Claux
The resident of Aize is not the only one whose house is cracked. More than a quarter of the inhabitants of the commune are affectedstarting with the mayor, Michel Chevalet. “Our soil is very clayey and with the drought, the cracks widen, the gables of some houses are completely open”assures the chosen one.
The struggle of the victims to be compensated
On the mayor’s desk is a huge pile of files. The pockets contain the many requests for recognition of the state of natural disaster. Since 2017, the town hall has been trying in vain to obtain the status, but its requests have all been rejected. The reason ? The municipality does not meet the necessary criteria.
“We do not understand, all the neighboring municipalities have been recognized as being in a state of natural disaster. We are not, even though our soil is the same as theirs”, explains Francis Dequidt, first deputy mayor. Without the recognition of the state natural disaster, the victims cannot be compensated. The town hall recently initiated appeals in order to obtain the status. A decision should be made by the end of the year.