On August 4, 1999, the Jospin government definitively abandoned the Chambonchard dam project in the Creuse department. The project had consumed 93 million francs, including 31.8 million for land acquisitions, though figures varied, with one National Assembly question mentioning 53 million francs. Despite this investment, not a single handful of earth was retained behind a concrete wall. The dam was intended to increase the flow of the Cher river and supply water to Montluçon, with flood control being a minor role. It was designed to combat summer water shortages, not floods. The Chambonchard dam was canceled in 1999 after 20 years of political and financial debate. The state and its partners spent 93 million francs to acquire land that was never flooded. The village, which had become a ghost town, eventually revived after the sale of the houses purchased by the state. A dam designed to combat drought, not floods, had been conceived by the public establishment for the development of the Loire and its tributaries (Epala), created in 1983 to carry out such projects. Chambonchard was to provide a retention capacity of 125 million cubic meters for drinking water, industry, agriculture, and flood control. A first cancellation occurred in 1991 under the Cresson government, before the project's capacity was reduced to 50 million cubic meters instead of 80 or 125 million. The file dragged on, was reduced, and was discussed again for nearly twenty years. The project budget for a capacity of 80 million cubic meters was estimated at 600 million francs in 1994, before being reduced to 500 million for the reduced version of 50 million cubic meters. This financing was to be provided at a level of 70 million francs by the state, 190 million by the Loire-Bretagne water agency, and 340 million by the Epala, thus by the local authorities of the Loire basin. Three actors, three budgets, one single construction site that was never started. For the mayor of Chambonchard at the time, the waiting period weighed on the entire commune. He called on the environment minister for a clear response on what he called a "disaster-stricken commune," stuck for decades between promises and uncertainties. Twenty inhabitants were expropriated, a ghost village. In the 1990s, a dozen inhabitants were expropriated. The expropriations began, and the residents sold their houses to leave. The village emptied house by house, farm by farm. Chambonchard became a ghost village. On the ground, the political climate changed abruptly. The dissolution of the National Assembly led to a change in majority, and the new environment minister decided to review all files. During a visit on site, she made a clear decision: "the dam still raises many questions and the development of the region does not go through it." The final bill, and a valley that revives. On August 4, 1999, Lionel Jospin announced the official abandonment of the project. In November of the same year, due to the absence of state participation, the Loire-Bretagne water agency canceled its financing of 190 million francs. The decision was confirmed by Dominique Voynet in 2000, then by Roselyne Bachelot in 2002. The affair did not end there. The Loire public establishment, heir to the Epala, dragged the state before the courts to be compensated for the sums spent. The administrative court of appeal in Nantes finally ordered the state to pay nearly seven million euros to the Loire public establishment. Meanwhile, the replacement solution for drinking water in Montluçon will cost about 30 million euros, mainly concentrated on a new purification plant. The village, however, eventually revived. The state sold the purchased houses to the Creuse departmental council, which restored them before reselling them to new residents. A Belgian who settled there, Filip Claes, embodies this unexpected turnaround of a village that was believed to be condemned to disappear under water. However, the story retains a rough edge: according to a question posed to the Senate in 2006, only part of the land was retroceded to the Creuse departmental council for resale to private individuals, while those located on the Allier side remain the property of the public establishment. Twenty-five years after the abandonment of the construction site, part of the Cher valley still belongs to the state, for a dam that will never exist.