“Around 4:30 p.m., my eldest daughter and her husband arrived and it was while getting out of the car that my son-in-law heard a loud noise. In a split second it all fell“, confides Jean Mouillard.
If the precise cause of the incident is unknown, the imposing hole, regarding 5 m long by 2 m wide, was caused by the rupture of a brick vault, built between 1860 and 1921, above the Hunelle. This stream, which has its source in Beloeil to flow into the Dender, crosses Jean and Liliane’s land right through. The latter had a narrow escape since they regularly pass where the ground has slipped to a depth of at least two meters.
“And to think that our grandchildren came to play here”
“We were very luckyLiliane sighs. And to think that on this lawn, our grandchildren came to play… It is also there that we had erected two tents a few years ago as part of the festivities of the Gourmet March of Chièvres. It might have happened at any time. “
The inhabitants of this vast residence, where you can still see an old mill, feel all the more helpless because, according to them, other parts of the weakened vault risk giving way to the end of their courtyard. “For the moment, nothing can be done. This work had been built by one of the former owners, before the house was bought by my grandparents in 1921.says Jean Mouillard. The repair costs are at our expense because the Province of Hainaut is responsible for the proper flow of water, and not for the maintenance of the vault which belongs to us.“
Agents of the Province descended on the spot, just like the mayor Olivier Hartiel and the insurance company, in order to note the damage. “However, there are no illusions regarding insurance intervention. “
