Floods, landslides, avalanches, forest fires, storms, cyclones… one in four French people is exposed to at least one natural risk in France, or two thirds of municipalities, according to the Ministry of Ecological Transition. More than 17 million citizens are suffering the consequences of the floods. Added to this are industrial and nuclear risks which could intensify in times of climate change. Economic and environmental issues are closely linked.
Developing a risk culture is urgent. This is evidenced by the fear aroused by the fire which ravaged two disused buildings in Rouen on Saturday September 30, raising the specter of the Lubrizol industrial disaster in 2019 in the same city.
“We must promote awareness and knowledge among elected officials, technicians, managers and citizens of the major risks to which they are subject, the apprehension of their vulnerability and the means of protecting themselves or mitigating their effects” , explains Céline Perherin, natural risks and territories project director at the Center for Studies and Expertise on Risks, Environment, Mobility and Development (Cerema). This organization has published two guides to help communities raise awareness of the risk and get their population involved. The specialist adds: “We must not only show the phenomena but also explain what is being done and what everyone can do. Risk culture must also be taught and learned. » Establishing this dynamic helps to limit, as much as possible, the damage and facilitates the return to normal life.
“The culture of risk allows us to overcome ignorance and thus reduce fears, while acquiring the right actions in the event of a disaster. Making it a cultural object in itself is important. While remaining lucid about the issues, faced with the risks of flooding, sources of anxiety, installing works of art in and around water adds a poetic and positive dimension”, notes Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, mayor of Rouen and president of Métropole Rouen-Normandie, which is organizing throughout the month of October “Rouen Métropole, capital of the next world”, a series of events on the resilience of territories of which Le Monde is a partner. In this context, the city will host the National River Conference on October 3 and 4. They aim to re-enchant the world through the relationship with water and the river, the imagination it carries, the living and the elements seen not as a threat but rather as a sensitive barometer with which we will have to relearn how to live. .
“A collective failure”
Many systems aim to inform citizens and businesses. However, “42% of metropolitan residents say they lack information on good behavior and instructions to follow,” according to an IFOP survey for the French Association for the Prevention of Natural and Technological Disasters, published in April.
A first regulatory text established citizens’ right to information on major risks in 1987. Then the environmental code, included in the civil security modernization law in 2004, reaffirms that the citizen has a share in play in your safety. However, “this dense legislation, often developed in reaction to events, only partly responds to the needs for greater prevention designed by the State, communities, the economic world and associations, as well as to the need to broaden public participation approaches so that they become actors in their own security. Despite certain successes, the work remains considerable, with some going so far as to describe risk culture as “a collective failure”, underlines journalist Frédéric Courant, in the report he piloted in 2021 on “transparency, information and participation of all in the management of major, technological or natural risks”.
The prefect and the mayor must respectively establish a departmental file and a municipal information document on major risks. But numerous studies have shown that these publications are little known and little consulted by the population.
Don’t be afraid
There is also an information portal, Géorisks, developed with the Ministry of Ecological Transition. Nevertheless, Frédéric Courant insists on “the interest of reporting this information in a more readable and more educational way, so that the content is adapted to different audiences. Georisks, he adds, is however in the process of being transformed to be accessible to all.
However, regulatory information is not sufficient. Above all, we must develop a local animation approach. However, the obstacles to the implementation of a real risk policy at the territorial level remain: denial, forgetting, desire not to frighten populations, fear of destroying the economic and tourist attractiveness of a territory, etc.
Since 2022, the government has established October 13 as “All Resilient to Risks” day to encourage municipalities to act. “It’s a long-term job,” concedes Olivier Geoffroy, municipal councilor delegated to the mayor of Orléans for major risks and crisis management. We must remain both humble and tenacious on the subject: it is not through a flyer or communication that we imprint something on the minds of residents. We must discuss with them and talk to them about the risks in a non-anxious way. »