The first two houses of a group of Seven dwellings threatened by coastal erosion And the marine submersion were shaved preventively on Friday in Treffiagat (Finistère).
Some residents moved near Léhan beach to attend this unprecedented scene. The roof and walls of the two houses were nibbled under the movements of the demolition shovel.
“With the advice of scientists, the decision fell that the only solution that was sustainable was to buy these seven houses and deconstruct them to be reborn space,” Stéphane Le Doaré, president of the Communes of the Bigouden South (CCPBS) told AFP.
The community will devote three million euros to it, mostly from public funds. Two other houses, among the seven targeted, will be destroyed in the fall. For the last three, the procedures will take “18 to 24 months”.
This preventive destruction in the face of the risk of coastal erosion and marine submersion is a first for the region, said Stéphane Le Doaré.
Housing built in the 1970s and 1980s
“It is a difficult exercise. When I was elected president of the community of communes (in 2020, note), I had not imagined that we would have this type of subject to deal with, “he added.
These dwellings were built in the low zone in the 1970s and 80s, they were then separated from the beach by a simple dune, which slowly thinned itself over time, leaving the houses subject to the vagaries of the storms.
Two planned dikes
For the 366 other houses in the Léhan district, two dikes will be built and riprap will be continued “to protect the other dwellings from a risk of submersion,” said the president of the CCPBS.
In November 2023, in anticipation of the passage of the Ciaran storm, About twenty houses had also been evacuated by prefectural decree in the town of around 2,500 inhabitants.
Almost a quarter of the coasts in France is in erosion, according to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, which is based on several studies.
