Twenty-five households plan to voluntarily leave Brienz (GR), threatened by a major and evacuated landslide last November. A working group mandated by the town will look at this preventive relocation, a first of this magnitude in Switzerland. She asks several questions.
Evacuated since last November, many residents and residents of Brienz have not abandoned the hope of returning home, according to Roland Tremp, president of the working group on resettlement. Since last November, they cannot go there until fixed hours and during the day, because of the imminent landslide of almost 1.2 million cubic meters of rock which threatens the village.
Those who move must demolish
Under these conditions and in the face of the uncertainty of the future, more and more inhabitants are now planning to move definitively. The working group has already had interviews with 25 households. The problem is that a relocation is not so simple if no damage has yet been caused by the natural disaster.
There has never been a comparable case in Switzerland. In the meantime, the municipality can certainly guarantee funds for preventive purposes, under the law on forests. But to claim it, those who want to move must first demolish their house in Brienz. “A drastic measure,” admits Roland Tremp, but it is the law, he specifies.
This is indeed the main problem that arises to those who want to leave Brienz: how to cover the costs of building a new house or moving in an apartment if you are only compensated after the demolition of your house in Brienz? The gray authorities have found a compromise, says Roland Tremp. They pay a relay loan. Thus, the households concerned can project themselves into the future.
Experiences to share
The persons concerned have until September 30 to file a preventive rehousing request. “If it remains at the end only five people, it is completely different than if there are 20 or 30,” said Roland Tremp. It is not only the appearance, but the whole infrastructure of the village which will be modified, in particular the water pipes, the sewers, as well as the roads or the power lines.
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The municipality supports these significant investment costs despite a very small number of inhabitants. The working group has not yet found a solution to this problem. But one thing is clear, according to Roland Tremp: “The experience we acquire here can help other municipalities that are in situations similar in the future”.
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Next to the small cemetery, the village church sits on the albula valley since 1519. If Brienz is finally abandoned because of the landslide, the building could one day be the only building in the still standing village.
“The church is a classified building. The regional planning law is clear: its directives must be respected in the interest of preserving heritage,” said Roland Tremp. But the 80 inhabitants of Brienz, evacuated since November, currently have other priorities.
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