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Moselle: how land subsidence penalizes the inhabitants of Rosbruck
Moselle: how land subsidence penalizes the inhabitants of Rosbruck
(France 2)
In this town, the ground has subsided after decades of coal mining. If the State was ordered to pay more than 3 million euros to around thirty victims, for many owners the account is not there.
The windows open on their own, and the tiles are peeling off. In Rosbruck (Moselle), the house of Gaston and Joëlle Pirih has been leaning for 38 years. A judge has just recognized them as victims of mining damage, due to the collapse of underground galleries in the 1980s, which had not been filled. “The house was damaged by exploitation. We had an immense deterioration in our lives”explains Joëlle.
The couple will receive 102,000 euros in compensation to make a screed. If she re-leveled the ground, she would remove up to 45 cm of height. Around thirty residents of Rosbruck will be compensated for their leaning houses.
The Court of Appeal of Metz (Moselle) ordered the State to pay them 3.2 million euros, because their village is located above underground galleries which were not sealed after the closure of the mines of coal. They collapsed in the 1980s, and the ground subsided. The village is now in a flood zone.
