• Last week, after the Tinée and Roya valleys, it was in Vésubie that the inhabitants were able to express themselves during a popular consultation.

  • They were able to identify the needs of their region after the passage of storm Alex.

  • At the same time as these public debates, a platform was opened on the Internet, in order to collect the grievances of the inhabitants.

    More than 120 projects emerged.

  • On February 14, all the participants in the consultations in the three valleys will meet at the Nice Sports Museum, to outline the main lines, then these requests will be presented to elected officials on February 28.

Last week, 50 inhabitants of the Vésubie valley, in the Alpes-Maritimes, took part in an unprecedented popular consultation to identify the needs of their region after storm Alex and draw its reconstruction.

As for Tinée and Roya, since the beginning of January, the microphone has been extended to residents of the three valleys, where the historic floods of October 2020 left 10 dead and eight missing.

Housing, tourism, agriculture, employment, mobility, the proposals will then be submitted to the mayors, under the aegis of the Interministerial Directorate for Public Transformation.

The “fundamental” housing issue

For Eliane Guigo, 71, retired in Venanson, the "fundamental" question in Vésubie remains to find a roof, with all these houses destroyed or damaged.

Result: "Demand is up 35% over the last two years" for social housing, she says, very familiar with the matter.

And many families devote up to "50% of their income" to housing, while some "already have a very low standard of living".

Kamil Monge, from Lantosque, underlines the mobility problems, these people "who always have difficulty getting to their work, in Carros or Nice, with communication channels still in poor condition".

But for Sarah de Caqueray, a 30-year-old farmer, "we must above all help the people who are on the territory to stay there".

Housing, employment, “sensitive and long subjects to sort out” according to this fruit producer, resident of Saint-Martin-Vésubie.

Over the course of the debates, the restoration of irrigation canals, the need for “more harmonious” tourism, or the lack of nurseries and the “opportunities” of fiber optics are also mentioned.

“50 million reserved by the State for these projects”

Of the 5,000 inhabitants of the valley, where the scars of the storm are still everywhere visible, 80 had applied for this consultation.

Fifty were finally drawn, paid 50 euros per day, said Domitille Arrivet, the moderator, consulting director at State of Mind, a company specializing in public consultation missions.

The host of the debate could only see to what extent "the sight of the disaster still remains significant among the inhabitants", with this obsession with "rehabilitation of the beauty of their valley".

"It's quite poignant when they talk about the noise that still resonates in their head."

At the same time as these public debates, a platform was opened on the Internet, in order to collect the grievances of the inhabitants.

More than 120 projects have emerged, from the creation of a Maison de pays for local products to the opening of an associative café.

Of the 572 million euros devoted to reconstruction, "the State has reserved 50 million euros for these projects, a potential increased to 100 million thanks to local authorities and the European Union", explains Xavier Pelletier, prefect delegate to reconstruction, ensuring that "small projects will not be forgotten".

On February 14, all the participants in the consultations in the three valleys will meet at the Nice Sports Museum, to outline the main lines of a reconstruction that they all want to be "sustainable", then these requests will be presented to the elected officials, February 28.

Nice

A popular consultation to define the “future” of the disaster-stricken valleys

Politics

Emmanuel Macron promises that 2022 will mark "the complete end of the works" in the Roya Valley

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