"Wake up, Blendecques is in danger": several hundred people demonstrated on Saturday in support of the stricken inhabitants of this Pas-de-Calais town hit by several episodes of flooding since November and to demand emergency work.
"We're fed up, we're fed up, we've got water everywhere, the walls are oozing, we need to get moving. The government has to do something, we're tired of doing the same thing over and over again," said Stéphane Opart, 67, among the demonstrators.
"There is an emergency, the major work must be done, everything must be rethought so that there are no more floods," said David Vilain, co-creator of the collective "Blendecques Aa never again".
A life 'turned upside down'
A resident of the commune, his house was heavily affected by the floods in January: "I had up to sixty centimetres of water in the house, I was told it would be at least a year before I could go back," lamented Mr. Vilain, who was rehoused in a studio in Saint-Omer, a few kilometres from Blendecques, with his daughter.
"Our lives have been turned upside down, we also want to be able to participate in meetings concerning work with the institutions to have a right of scrutiny," added Geoffray Moreau, from the same collective.
Record floods hit the Aa river in the Saint-Omer region at the beginning of January, after historic floods at the end of the year.
Emergency work from Monday
As soon as the handover ended on Tuesday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal visited the victims of the floods in Clairmarais, promising them that the state would "not forget them".
Emergency work is due to start on Monday in Blendecques, Pas-de-Calais prefect Jacques Billant announced on Friday during a press briefing. "It involves carrying out a number of cleaning operations, repairing the weirs, cleaning the banks and consolidating them," he said.
Read alsoFloods in Pas-de-Calais: constructions, maintenance, expropriations... Who decides?
"Angry parents, let's save our city, our schools", "Inhabitants, craftsmen, never again" or "If Blendecques were a bank, we would have already saved it", could be read on placards in the procession that crisscrossed the streets of the town that were most affected by the floods.
"I've lost everything, things have to move and it has to go fast, we have to protect all the inhabitants, we're not in good shape psychologically. We're living through a social crisis, we're at the end of our lives, I cry every day," said Valérie Caron, 57.