On the occasion of the visit to the island of the Minister of Outremers, Annick Girardin, a hundred residents of Miquelon, which has 600 inhabitants, demonstrated on occasion to demand better management of the relocation of the village, threatened by the rising waters.
The demonstrators challenged the minister, herself from St-Pierre-et-Miquelon and on a three-day official visit to the archipelago, on the future of the village, classified as an area at high risk of submersion since the adoption in September 2018 of the Coastal Risk Prevention Plan (PPRL), and which has become largely unconstructable.
"The consequences of climate change are irreversible"
With shovels and picks in hand, they have symbolically delimited plots of land at a place called Chemin des Roses, located on a height south of the town, where they want the relocation of this old fishing village established on the edge of the 'Atlantic Ocean. Many residents are opposed to the option currently proposed by the local authority, in charge of town planning, to create a future subdivision of around fifty plots north of the village, in a place called Cape Town, a peninsula subject to the risk of separation in the event of high water levels.
Guest of the local television news Tuesday evening, Annick Girardin acknowledged that for Miquelon, "the consequences of climate change are irreversible" and that "we have to think differently, build differently". For the minister, it is "common sense" to expand the village in the area desired by the demonstrators.
A project presented on January 31
She said she was open to support from her ministry for "a reflection on the creation of an eco-district", in order to stem the demographic decline of the town. "The State must be and will be alongside the Community, which must think, do, and implement this type of choice," said Annick Girardin.
Stéphane Lenormand, the president of the Collectivity of St-Pierre-et-Miquelon, who established a project of Territorial plan of development and town planning (STAU) currently subjected to the public inquiry, announced that he would hold a public meeting on the subject in Miquelon on January 31st.
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