Canal de la Vésubie

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Canal de la Vésubie
Canal de la Vésubie-2.jpg

Canal de la Vésubie in the municipality of La Roquette-sur-Var

geography
Country Flag of france France
Coordinates 43 ° 48 '59.2 "  N , 7 ° 13' 3.2"  E Coordinates: 43 ° 48 '59.2 "  N , 7 ° 13' 3.2"  E
Beginning Saint-Jean-la-Rivière
The End Gairaut
Data
length 32.7 km
maximum height 271 m
minimum height 245 m
history
start of building 1881
completion 1885

The Canal de la Vésubie is a hydraulic structure in the Alpes-Maritimes department ; the aqueduct supplies the city of Nice with drinking water.

The construction lasted from 1881 to 1885. Over a length of 32 km, routes and sections alternate in the open air. Captured in Saint-Jean-la-Rivière , the water flows on a complex course to its end terminal Gairaut .

chronology

Canal de la Vésubie: inlet structure in Saint-Jean-la-Rivière

The supply of drinking water to the city of Nice had always been problematic in the summer months.

In ancient times the water supply consisted of the collection of rainwater in cisterns or from springs in the foothills of the mountains and the construction of wells to get to the groundwater under Paillon . This was insufficient in the summer, and in the season the city often suffered from long periods of drought.

After the annexation of the county of Nice by France , the French administration looked for a solution to the problem. In 1861 the administration bought the Sainte-Thècle spring in the commune of Peillon . A study showed that the water had a sufficient flow rate and on March 4, 1864, the water arrived in Nice. But with the construction of the railway to Nice in the same year, the city saw growth that made an improvement in the water supply necessary.

The idea of ​​drawing water from the upper reaches of a river dates back to the beginning of the 19th century. In a warning book published in 1803, the doctor François-Emmanuel Fodéré advocated the construction of a canal to carry water from the Vésubie to the Nice area. After the annexation of the county of Nice, water supply became a public responsibility.

In 1864 the city of Nice commissioned the Compagnie générale des eaux with the water management. The contract between the city of Nice, represented by its mayor Malaussena, and the Compagnie générale des eaux, represented by its president Edward-Charles Blount and its vice-president Paul de Richemont , was signed on October 27, 1869. In 1878 the Compagnie générale des eaux was granted the concession to build and use the water of the Vésubie. On December 24, 1878, President Marshal Mac-Mahon approved the concession to build the canal and to use the Canal de la Vésubie for the Compagnie Générale des Eaux; this was founded for the realization of the project. The project was supported by Joseph Durandy .

The canal is 32 km long, 10 km of which run through tunnels and transports 275,000 m 3 of water daily from the tapping point at Saint-Jean-la-Rivière in the Vésubie valley.

The project was planned by engineer E. Delacroix and construction began the following year. In 1881 the construction work had progressed well, but a lack of amicable agreements in the expropriation proceedings slowed down the work in 1883.

Construction was completed in 1885 and the Compagnie Générale des Eaux published a map on a scale of 1: 1000 with the route of the structure and its secondary tunnels, in order to be able to assess the demands of the property owners for the passage of water without any doubt.

Thanks to the aqueduct, the cultivation of ornamental plants began to develop in Nice from then on . Between 1887 and 1894, poorly maintained filter basins caused a cholera epidemic and an outbreak of typhus in 1898 , the latter repeated in 1911.

In 1892 the Canal de la Vésubie was extended to Menton .

Marius-Paul Otto (1870–1939) published a thesis in 1897 with the title “ Recherches sur l'ozone ”. The treatment method he invented led to the construction of the world's first water treatment plant using ozone in 1907. This waterworks treats the water brought in from Sainte-Thècle / Peillon, with which the districts of Nice were supplied.

In 1909 it was decided to treat the water brought in via the Canal de la Vésubie by building a water treatment plant using ozonation in Rimiez. This plant could process 13,000 m 3 per day. This first plant has since been shut down, but has been replaced by a new plant in Super Rimez, which can treat 150,000 m 3 per day in six steps .

In 1959 and 1960 landslides in the municipality of Castagniers interrupted the canal for several dozen meters. In 1991, the section that runs in the open air in the Gairaut district was laid in a tunnel, and the section between the Cascade de Gairaut and the processing plant in Super Rimiez was renewed.

Several parts of the canal have been registered as Monument historiques since November 28, 2001 :

  • the discharge of the water in Saint-Jean-la-Rivière, within the commune of Utelle
  • the Saint-Blaise gallery in the communes of La Roquette-sur-Var and Saint-Blaise ,
  • the section of the canal between the small valleys Garde and Costa Rasta

bibliography

  • Jean-Bernanrd Lacroix: La question de L'eau à Nice. Pp. 177–208, Nice-Historique, year 2003, no  4 ( nicehistorique.org ).
  • Jacques Gastaldi: Les eaux de la Vésubie arrivent à Nice lors de L'Exposition internationale, 1883–1884. Pp. 209–213, Nice-Historique, year 2003, no  4 ( nicehistorique.org ).

See also

Web links

Commons : Canal de la Vésubie  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Notes and evidence

  1. ^ Pierre-Robert Garino: Les vallées du Paillon . Serre, Nice 1997, ISBN 2-86410-268-4 , pp. 64 .
  2. ^ François Emmanuel Fodéré: Voyage aux Alpes maritimes. Ou, Histoire naturelle, agraire, civile et médicale, du comté de Nice et pays limitrophes, enrichi de notes de comparaison avec d'autres contrées . Paris 1821, OCLC 867823807 ( catalog.hathitrust.org ).
  3. ↑ Traité entre la Compagnie générale des eaux et la ville de Nice fixant les conditions de réalisation du canal de la Vésubie, October 27, 1869, 2 O 764.
  4. ↑ CG06: Plan du canal de la Vésubie en 1875 (PDF).
  5. ↑ Le Petit Niçois. May 21, 1882.
  6. ↑ Le Petit Niçois. March 3, 1885
  7. ^ Robert de Souza: Nice Capitale d'Hiver. Serre éditeur 2001, ISBN 2-86410-323-0 , p. 101.
  8. ^ Élévation de la façade de l'usine de stérilisation des eaux projetée à Nice par la Compagnie française de l'ozone, 23 May 1905, 2 O 763
  9. ↑ Nice Matin of December 17, 1959 and October 25, 1960.
  10. ^ "Prize d'eau de Saint-Jean-la-Rivière" , base Mérimée , ministère français de la Culture .
  11. ^ "Siphon de Saint-Blaise" , base Mérimée , ministère français de la Culture
  12. ↑ "Section of vallons de la Garde et de Costa Rasta, section Representative du canal de la Vésubie» , base Mérimée , ministère français de la Culture