A place that has been steadily emptying out since the late 1970s
Taken from AFP Belgium
With its deserted streets and crumbling walls covered in graffiti, Doel has a firm reputation as Belgium's most famous ghost town, but its few inhabitants - currently 21 - now see a glimmer of hope that their village will recover.
Such a case would be a remarkable change of fortune for a place that has been steadily emptying out since the late 1970s, when its population was 60 times greater.
Trapped between the port of Antwerp (the second largest in Europe) and a nuclear power plant, Doel has become a morbid attraction for curious tourists and "urban explorers", who film themselves wandering through the interior of ruined buildings.
Police regularly patrol to prevent vandals and squatters from entering those buildings.
Only two cafes - one of them next to a 17th-century windmill - and a church remind visitors that the village still resists oblivion.
"There are lots of activities. But if you come here on a Sunday, or especially at night, of course you'll see empty houses and that's what irritates people the most," Liese Stuer, a resident of Doel, told AFP.
"I think it's important for people to know that this isn't a ghost town, that there are still people trying to live here and trying to establish a life," he asserted.
– Memoirsof an elegant city –
Stuer, a 37-year-old Flemish dialect teacher for foreigners and freelance graphic artist, moved to Doel five years ago when she partnered with a local person, but she used to visit Doel as a child with her grandparents, who lived nearby, and remembered it as an elegant town.
But Doel's fate collapsed in the late 1990s when Belgian authorities decided to expropriate and demolish the villages around the port of Antwerp to build a new container dock.
While most of the residents moved elsewhere, a hard core stayed and fought back in the courts, through fierce lobbying and by promoting street art to add color to the empty houses.
Given the port's importance to Belgium's economy, the campaign seemed doomed to failure. The Flemish regional government banned people from moving there, and vandalism made the area increasingly unsafe for residents.
However, in 2016 the Belgian Supreme Court dismissed the expansion plan, after the European Court of Justice ruled that it threatened the surroundings of the Doel marshes and the ecological balance of the Scheldt River, which borders it.
Nature and the solidarity that unites the residents of Doel made Stuer decide to stay.
"It's very pleasant to live here. It's the place where I want my son to grow up, because of the people and the environment, which I find very warm and welcoming," she noted.
"For me, it doesn't feel like I'm isolated. Not at all. It's a very connected town," he said.
– Indefinite future –
But it's still unclear exactly what awaits Doel.
Talks are ongoing between authorities and residents. In December, city officials outlined a plan to gradually allow new residents to move in and renovate an old beached boat, while a pier is built to the perimeter of Doel.
The Flemish government, which now owns all but one of the houses in Doel, is reluctant to see the town return to a population close to the 1,300 inhabitants it had in the 1970s.
"We know the town isn't going to disappear. In fact, it has the image of a ghost town, but that's not how it should be," Flemish Minister of Finance, Heritage and Housing Matthias Diependaele told AFP.
But "we have to see what we can do with it today (...) the most difficult point is the fact that we know for sure that right next door there will be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, port activity," he said.
