2023-07-23 06:11:00
“The most impressive thing was not really the height of the water but the sound of the waves”, rightly recalls Denis Devivier, president of the non-profit association “Chaudfontaine se ressource” which plays the role of matchmaker between the inhabitants and the town.
The sound of diggers now replaces that of torrents. Imposing machines are working to consolidate the banks of the Vesdre just opposite Source O Rama, the tourist office where an exhibition dedicated to disaster victims is being held from July 15 to September 10. This basic necessities work baptized Quick Win by the Walloon Minister for the Environment Céline Tellier (Ecolo) benefited from a budget of 15 million euros and will make it possible to be better armed in the face of an upcoming rise in water levels.
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Nevertheless, the 5.2 billion euros injected in total by the Walloon Region will ultimately not have made it possible to erase all the scars of the floods poured into the valley, even if a major helping hand has been given to the traders of Chaudfontaine. “I say it with my heart, we are really in a good commune. If we weren’t here, we would be dead,” says Tony, a pizza maker opposite the Casino de Chaudfontaine, an emblematic place in this town that has been badly affected by the floods.
Denis Devivier tells us that “opening up shops has been a priority for the municipality so as to allow life to resume”. The same goes for mayor Daniel Bacquelaine (MR), met at the inauguration of the exhibition, who launched the “rebuild, bounce back and revive in Chaudfontaine” project just after the disaster.
Among the most urgent works, those of the redevelopment of the banks of the Vesdre. ©MICHEL TONNEAU
Twenty-seven houses still to be knocked down
However, by going up the course of the Vesdre in the footsteps of Denis Devivier, it is easy to realize the work that remains to be done so that everything becomes as before. Starting with these 27 uninhabited and uninhabitable houses in a row over a distance of 250 meters from the chip shop on Avenue des Thermes which will soon be demolished. A striking vision of the desolation left by the floods.
These 27 dwellings gutted by the current had been built directly on the edge of the bed of the Vesdre. Suffice to say that they had no chance when the waters began to come out of the bed of the river. Now only wooden planks and site barriers protect these ruins from potential squatters or curious people.
Two years after the floods, Chaudfontaine is preparing to revive its tourist and cultural center
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“Twenty-two houses out of the 27 have been purchased to date by the municipality with the aim of demolishing them and leaving more room for the Vesdre.”
The Walloon Region had released 25 million euros (3.1 million only for Chaudfontaine) to allow the nine municipalities of category 1, that is to say the municipalities most affected by the floods, to acquire the damaged and problematic dwellings in the event of the next flood. At the end of June, the Region had announced that this aid would be supplemented by an envelope of 86 million euros also intended for category 2 municipalities. Thanks to these subsidies, “the municipalities were able to buy back these dwellings at an attractive price for the owners”, assures Denis Devivier.
Daniel Bacquelaine confirms that “22 out of the 27 houses have been purchased to date by the municipality with the aim of demolishing them and leaving more room for the Vesdre”. The first thirteen should be laid down this fall.
Attract new residents
Even if it is difficult to imagine it, in front of these 27 dilapidated dwellings, a vast vacant lot will have to be transformed into a new complex of housing and shops on stilts to “preserve the number of dwellings”, explains Denis Devivier. This land, currently covered with gravel, once housed the capsule factory of the Chaudfontaine water factory, now owned by Coca-Cola and located a few tens of meters upstream from the river.
Who says old industrial site says depollution of the land, which further complicates the development of this new district. An ambitious real estate project. However, it is enough to count the numerous “for sale” signs flanked on the facades of the houses on the avenue de Thermes to realize that it will not be easy to find buyers to live in this always flood-prone area.
Denis Devivier, president of the association “Chaudfontaine is resourced” in front of the emblematic communal swimming pool ravaged by the floods. ©MICHEL TONNEAU
To attract new inhabitants to this town well known in the country for its spring and its thermal baths, Chaudfontaine could have counted on its swimming pool, which was also ravaged by the waves. “At the time, people traveled from afar to see this swimming pool, Denis Devivier tells us with a certain nostalgia. It was the only pool that had a removable roof in Belgium.” He even tells us that he knows “residents who have bought a house in Chaudfontaine for the communal swimming pool”. This large blue building from another generation could well embody the status quo of the many projects and construction sites of the municipality. Denis Devivier remains realistic, “the economic model of a swimming pool is no longer profitable, there will be no new ones”. Demolition of the building is scheduled for the fall.
An ambitious project but…
These demolition and land redevelopment works are part of the “Schéma Vesdre” launched by the Walloon Region in partnership with the town planning office Studio Paola Viganò, the University of Liège and the Yellow Window office. As part of this plan, which must run until 2050, Daniel Bacquelaine explains that it is a question of rebuilding “taking into account floods but also new technologies in terms of insulation, energy, etc.”. An ambitious project for these towns bruised by the rising waters but which seems today – at the sight of these still dilapidated, abandoned houses and projects still at the stage of architect’s plans – far from having already achieved its objective.
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