Toulouse: how to clean the banks of the Garonne
Three months after the exceptional flood in January, the banks of the Garonne are still cluttered in places with tree trunks and branches, in Toulouse. The City is considering reusing these ice jams.
3,000 cubic meters. The equivalent of about thirty fully loaded semi-trailer trucks. This is the volume of uprooted trees, branches and various rubbish removed by the services of the City of Toulouse after the exceptional flood of January 10 and 11, 2022. A figure given by Cécile Dufraisse, deputy mayor of Toulouse in charge of watercourse. The City of Toulouse is indeed responsible for the banks of the rivers and watercourses (Garonne, Touch and Hers), or the canals (Canal du Midi, lateral to the Garonne, Brienne) in the crossing of the Pink City.
Several weeks of cleaning
“The municipal agents of the rivers and canals services of Toulouse and the roads department were mobilized for several weeks after the flood to clean the banks of the Garonne”, indicates Cécile Dufraisse, “we did not expect that the level of the Garonne is rising so quickly”. The Garonne indeed reached last January the height of 4m30, But despite all their efforts, ice jams (this is the term for this detritus torn by the tumultuous river) still clutter the banks of the river, in places. Trunks of trees, heaps of branches and various objects, deposited there by the waves, are still lying at the foot of the Pont des Catalans or around the Pont Saint-Michel, for example.
“There are still a few branches at the level of the Catalans, perhaps 50 cubic meters, and also at the Saint-Michel bridge”, admits Cécile Dufraisse, “but they do not present any danger for navigation or the safety of the bridges”, assures the elected.
The most spectacular piles, and in particular those located in the heart of the Pink City, on the ports of La Daurade, Saint-Pierre, Viguerie, or along the quays of the city center and the Prairie des Filtres have been cleaned . Like the huge trunk stranded on the sea bream. And the mud that littered the docks has disappeared. “On a removed everything that could present a danger to navigation, bridges,; footbridges and dykes, and walkers, from Bazacle to the island of Ramier”, sums up Cécile Dufraisse.
Biodiversity reservoir
“There will still be removals of ice jams, we will try to remove them”, explains the elected representative, “but other branches entangled in the vegetation will not be removed if they do not present any particular danger, constituting them a reservoir of biodiversity which is also monitored by the Toulouse Museum; and the Garonne is in the Natura 2000 zone”.
The City of Toulouse has thought about a reasoned reuse of these volumes of wood recovered on the banks: “I asked the services to study how the retransformers could, in wood chips for example; reuse is being studied”, says the deputy mayor of Toulouse, “this should be done on site, on the banks, to save time and money”.
Many Toulouse residents and walkers no doubt look at these tree trunks and branches abandoned on the banks with a certain interest, even envy: cut up, this wood would go well in the chimney!