Lake Salagou was designed to drown the village of Celles, but never did
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Re: Lake Salagou was designed to drown the village of Celles, but never did
#2> “Some people think it’s good, but it would be especially good if it wasn’t in their [former] house,”
This implies that some of the people expropriated didn't their get homes back. Instead of getting new families to move in why not simply return these people their homes.
Re: Lake Salagou was designed to drown the village of Celles, but never did
#3> “Some people think it’s good, but it would be especially good if it wasn’t in their [former] house,” This implies that some of the people expropriated didn't their get homes back. Instead of getting new families to move in why not simply return these people their homes.
I think in many (most?) cases the former owners simply aren't alive anymore. Presumably they were paid for the houses when they were kicked out too, so that would complicate things.
Re: Lake Salagou was designed to drown the village of Celles, but never did
#4The verb is inundate.
Re: Lake Salagou was designed to drown the village of Celles, but never did
#5> “Some people think it’s good, but it would be especially good if it wasn’t in their [former] house,” This implies that some of the people expropriated didn't their get homes back. Instead of getting new families to move in why not simply return these people their homes.
I think in many (most?) cases the former owners simply aren't alive anymore. Presumably they were paid for the houses when they were kicked out too, so that would complicate things.
This same thing has happened in the USA as well. TVA will use eminent domain to seize a bunch of properties, paying fair market value (usually a little bit above appraisal, hardly enough to compensate for having one's farm destroyed and needing to start over), and then sometimes the project falls through or gets cancelled. 20, 30, 50 years later, the property is sitting there, now federal land, no one on it, with no planned use for the future. It would make sense to sell it to someone to use, but they never do. They just squat on vast acreages acquired for obsolete projects.
New London Connecticut went to the Supreme Court to establish the right of local governments to seize private property on behalf of for-profit multinational corporations, under the theory that the corporation would pay more in tax and thus evicting the owner and seizing their home is a public good. Connecticut won and established this right permanently as fundamental to the Constitution, unable to be challenged or diminished by law. New London's corporate master then decided they didn't really want the land after all. Owner was cast out and her life destroyed, her house sitting rotting to this day, no taxes at all being collected. But thank God the corporations have this new Constitutional right to seize any private property under eminent domain!
Re: Lake Salagou was designed to drown the village of Celles, but never did
#6This exact same thing happened just over the hill from where I live now.
Re: Lake Salagou was designed to drown the village of Celles, but never did
#7The verb is inundate.
I agree that inundate is more correct, but the article itself uses drowned:
> How to Make Sense of an Undrowned Town
...
> Then, local government decided the inhabitants of Celles would be evicted so the whole area could be drowned.
Re: Lake Salagou was designed to drown the village of Celles, but never did
#8This exact same thing happened just over the hill from where I live now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocks_Island_Dam_controversy
Except in your case, they never built a dam, while in OP they did, but a few meters shorter. Exact, give or take a few million liters of water.
Re: Lake Salagou was designed to drown the village of Celles, but never did
#9This exact same thing happened just over the hill from where I live now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocks_Island_Dam_controversy
Re: Lake Salagou was designed to drown the village of Celles, but never did
#10Article tells nice story but offers little explanation. Why did the lake end up 11 m shallower than planned? Why starting to rebuild took fifty years? What does "bail réel solidaire" actually mean?
Also they are planning to have 35 people in the village, that sounds very tiny.