In Rochefort, 174 homes will be deprived of running water in favor of a disinfection protocol against Legionnaires' disease.

Without waiting for the final analysis results, the Rochefort public housing office has taken the decision to chemically treat the collective hot water supply network.

" We have decided to implement a comprehensive disinfection protocol for the Salaneuve neighborhood from Tuesday, August 26th until Thursday, August 28th," explains Véronique Pavageau, general manager of Rochefort Océan, the public housing office (OPH). "We prefer to act before the results of the latest analyses are available, and we have informed the Regional Health Agency (ARS). Our service providers, Engie for the collective boiler room and Aloes for the treatment, will inject chlorine into the network and take measurements using strips to verify the quality of the intervention."

This is the shocking response to the contamination of the communal boiler room supplying approximately 174 homes in nine buildings by Legionella bacteria. The case of a Rochefort tenant hospitalized in mid-June after contracting Legionella triggered the vigilance of the ARS on July 23, and tests confirmed the presence of the bacteria. The latter contaminate the body through the respiratory tract, by inhalation of aerosolized water vapor.

This decision by the OPH therefore means that, for three days, the use of running water will be impossible, except for flushing the toilet. Another consequence: the removal of the hundred or so filter shower heads installed in recent days. Chlorine could damage these special anti-Legionella shower heads, similar to those found in hospitals.

"They installed it the day after the contamination became public (Wednesday, August 13, Editor's note) but we no longer had any pressure in the shower, so they had to come back on Monday, August 18," Valérie Bechler calmly explains, showing off the brand-new shower head, provided by the services of the Rochefort Océan Public Housing Office. This fifty-year-old mother, who lives with her two children in a council apartment in the Salaneuve district of Rochefort, is delighted to have regained full use of her bathroom after the warning against using the shower on August 5.

Valérie Bechler's boys, Léon, 8, and Sam, 12, bring a bit of good humor. When asked if he's happy to have regained the use of the shower, the younger one, with all the nonchalance inherent to his age, answers negatively, like a cat offered a nice bath.

Nevertheless, psychosis has somewhat taken hold in the neighborhood. Before the announcement of the OPH's shock treatment, local residents spoke of a "health emergency," some demanding "bottled water or the possibility of using the showers in the sports complexes for hygiene." "In August, when we stayed here, we had no choice but to wash in cold water. On hot days, it's okay, but..."

"The shower heads are good, but there are also the other water inlets, the kitchen sinks, the bathrooms, they didn't put any filters in there," wonders the couple formed by David and Sengthan. "The hot water also circulates through there when we do the dishes, there can be steam... In addition, now, the water drops from the shower seem to come from the ends of the earth because we no longer have any pressure," they regret.

The residents we met now prefer to drink bottled water. "We're freaking out, we think the water has a taste. Even to brush my teeth, I use a bottle. So, we're afraid to turn on the hot water," says a neighbor.

"As of August 13 and 14, we were able to install nearly 107 filter shower kits in the 160 homes that still need to be equipped. Of the fifty or so unoccupied apartments, some tenants are absent or, in very rare cases, reluctant to have us come into their homes, meaning we still have to schedule interventions," says Véronique Pavageau. Determined to find a solution, the manager points out that the situation, being linked to homes and private life, is more complicated to deal with than a contaminated public establishment, like the La Rochelle police station recently affected by the same Legionella contamination.

Faced with the solution, formulated by the OPH, of closing access to running water, to allow a deep chemical cleaning of the hot water supply system, Sengthan wonders: "How will we wash ourselves? It will be very difficult. We have to think about vulnerable people, children and the elderly." Packs of bottled water will be ordered to supply the entire neighborhood with drinking water and, for hygiene, a request to the City for access to municipal facilities equipped with toilets is also in progress.