His crops are ruined, his fields are under water, his house is flooded and his equipment is good to throw away… However, Jérôme Wavrant, market gardener in Tilques, near Saint-Omer, refuses to complain and curse fate. Affected by the floods which have continued in the west of Pas-de-Calais for around ten days, this farmer has no intention of giving up and leaving a farm handed down from father to son for 150 years.
This Friday, the sun makes an appearance in the sky of Pas-de-Calais which still looks like a gigantic puddle. For the first time in far too many days, the department is no longer on orange flood-flood alert, Vigicrues having lowered the alert level by one notch the day before. For its part, the prefecture confirmed that the decline of most rivers would continue “at least until Saturday”. A respite taken advantage of by the market gardeners of Tilques, a small town located in the middle of the Audomarois marshes, to see the extent of the damage. “My cauliflower plots are drowned, the endive forcing buildings are underwater, the same for the mushrooms,” lists Jérôme Wavrant.
“I’m not going to wait for help to live”
Bathed in a few tens of centimeters of muddy water, its 45,000 heads of cauliflower are in fact good to throw away and the two-hectare plot will not be usable until next spring. “We got used to the idea that the cultures of the moment were lost. For the endives, we harvest what’s left, with our feet in the water. This caused me to catch the disease and, in any case, we cannot transport anything,” explains the farmer. Because, surrounded by water, its farm is no longer accessible by car. Jérôme Wavrant has to pick up his workers by tractor. In short, even if it is not profitable, the market gardener saves what he can: “Government announcements are good. But I’m not going to wait for help to live without knowing when it will arrive. My job is to produce and sell,” he insists.
The market gardener recognizes it, Emmanuel Macron’s promises were quickly followed by contacts from local authorities. “I haven’t yet delved into the administrative files to fill out, I don’t have the heart for that now,” slips the farmer. I just hope that the mechanisms will be adapted to the situation.” Because the current struggle of having our feet in the water will be closely followed by a financial struggle. “We will feel the cash flow gap in a month with what we have not sold. And it’s the same for all farmers,” he laments.
“Either we leave and leave a wasteland, or we adapt”
Despite the decline, Jérôme Wavrant still measures around thirty centimeters of float in his installations, a little less in his house. So, in the meantime, he and his employees pump tirelessly. “Even if we have to wait until the water has completely subsided to see the extent of the damage, we already know that there is a lot of mechanical damage in the buildings,” explains the market gardener. Its electrical installations, its machines, its motors, its tanks… Its entire production line, “a little old” but which worked well, and which the operator hopes will not be reimbursed given its age.
Jérôme Wavrant had never seen such floods since he took over his parents’ farm in 1998. “It’s true that we have already had water, but not all the way to the buildings. and houses. My parents have never seen anything like this either,” he exclaims. However, even if he knows that the phenomenon risks repeating itself more frequently, the market gardener will not let go of a business passed down from father to son for 150 years. “Either we become demotivated and leave, leaving a wasteland, or we adapt. And I don’t know anyone in the swamp who wants to leave,” he says. “For me, it’s because I have a quality of life here that I wouldn’t find elsewhere that I’m going to continue,” he admits.