Build Back Better

The municipality of Rosport-Mompach was among the hardest hit by the July 2021 floods. Around 200 households, a handful of businesses, various clubs, and the municipality itself suffered extensive damage, particularly in Steinheim and Bour. The Covid pandemic, which had dominated daily life, faded into the background overnight.[1]

Five years on, residents have been briefed on what has been done. Retention basins, dams, and walls have been put in place. Maps have been drawn up to show residents at what water level their home will be affected, with individual advice offered on top. A total of 278 measures were analysed.[1]

70 centimetres

The multi-purpose centre in Bour had to be demolished. A new campus is now being built around the existing school, complete with a multi-purpose centre and a school extension. Both will sit 70 centimetres above the summer 2021 water level. Technical installations will be placed on the upper floor. "Build back better", is the Home Affairs Ministry's motto, said Mayor Stéphanie Weydert, and the municipality is following the same logic.[1]

70 centimetres. That is the margin. The new buildings are designed to sit above the worst flood the town has ever seen, by the height of a kitchen counter. If the next flood is 71 centimetres higher than 2021, the logic fails. If it is 69 centimetres higher, the buildings hold. The margin is not a guarantee. It is a calculation.[1]

Not whether, but when

Environment Minister Serge Wilmes addressed the crowd. The question, he said, is no longer whether another flood will come, but when. The country will be faced with high water again. It will be hit again by strong rainfall. And it will have to live through further heatwaves, as it did two weeks ago, with the hot spell still not entirely behind us.[1]

These are natural phenomena, Wilmes said, amplified by human-driven climate change. Something science has established beyond doubt and reminds us of year after year. Climate change is not a matter of fate, he stressed. Each and every person can do something about it.[1]

Five years ago, the Sûre river flooded Echternach. Five years ago, the same river flooded Rosport-Mompach. Today, both towns have walls and basins and maps and 70-centimetre margins. Today, the Sûre is at a record low. Today, the Environment Minister says the question is not whether but when. The flood wall is built. The drought continues. The 70 centimetres are measured against a flood that happened five years ago, not against the flood that will happen in five years' time.[1]