A new dam and infrastructure works have saved the famous Mont-Saint-Michel abbey's status as an island by reversing the silting of its bay, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday.
An old dam across the Couesnon River in front of the mount protected agriculture and the nearby town of Pontorson from floods.
But it also stopped the river's vigorous outflow during low tide, which had flushed sediment out into the bay and for centuries helped Mont-Saint-Michel to remain an island during high tide.
Gradually, the island was turning into a rocky hill in the sand, surrounded by water only during spring tides a few times a year and connected to the mainland with a causeway that further slowed the water's flow and became an unsightly parking lot.
"In order to transmit, one must preserve," Mr Macron said during a visit to celebrate the monument's 1,000th anniversary.
"But for decades, Mont-Saint-Michel threatened to silt up completely, which would have realised the old dream of English generals to take the mount as if it was a hilltop amid fields."
He said a new hydraulic dam project started in 1995 and completed in 2015 was now proving it is able to gradually flush sand out of the bay.
"In just a few years, the silting up of the bay has been stopped and we have restored the possibility of an island," Mr Macron said.
In recent years, the parking lot has been moved inland, and visitors can now access the site with only shuttle buses, on foot or by bicycle over a new bridge on stilts that lets the water pass under it.
A Unesco world heritage site since 1979, the Mont-Saint-Michel is one of France's top tourist attractions, with nearly 2.8 million visitors in 2022.
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Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
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Current number of staff: More than 150
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Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.
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