Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-17-Speech-4-227"
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"en.20010517.11.4-227"2
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"Mr President, 114 municipalities in the Somme region are flooded, 2 800 homes are affected, more than 1 000 people have been evacuated and placed in temporary accommodation and the local economy has been paralysed. This is the toll inflicted by the floods that have hit the Somme valley.
In addition to the understandable solidarity that has been shown towards the people who have been affected and the businesses that are, to all intents and purposes, out of action, these people are waiting for compensation to be paid out as soon as possible – in other words, as soon as the committee of inquiry into natural disasters has completed its report and issued its conclusions. Once the water levels have subsided, it will be time to work out who is responsible. For example, why has the Somme’s maintenance department not maintained the region’s riverbanks and why has the river not been dredged for decades? Why have the municipalities allowed building in an area at risk from flooding, disregarding the most basic rules of land use planning? Why have embankments, hedges and ditches been destroyed as part of land consolidation, which has, moreover, been carried out in favour of intensive farming? Why has a reservoir not been built in the Somme bay and why have no real measures been implemented to prevent rising water levels and flooding? To cite fate, high tides or exceptional levels of rainfall is not enough. People who are isolated, re-located in precarious conditions, deserve more than fine-sounding words from the French President or the few million given grudgingly by the French government. Insurance policies should, of course, pay for the damage caused by natural disasters within a reasonable timeframe, but, for the future, we must learn to respect and take account of the necessary and incontrovertible laws of nature, and prepare ourselves to prevent these natural disasters. The only way to respond to the suffering of the people is with practical, swift and effective action."@en1
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