Find here all of our live #BASSINES
7:14 p.m. : They are nicknamed “mega-basins” by their detractors. Farmers and the administration prefer the term “substitute reserves”. These huge open-air pools again gave rise to a demonstration in Sainte-Soline, in Deux-Sèvres. We explain to you why these projects are so criticized.
(DELPHINE LEFEBVRE / HANS LUCAS)
6:04 p.m. : It’s 6 p.m., we’re making a new point on the news:
Russia will suspend its participation in the agreement allowing the export of Ukrainian cereals, kyiv denounces a “false pretense” and calls on Moscow to “to fulfill one’s obligations”. Follow our live.
Clashes erupted in the countryside of Deux-Sèvres during a demonstration of thousands of opponents to a “mega-basin” site for agricultural irrigation. Five gendarmes were injured and four demonstrators arrested, according to the prefect of Deux-Sèvres. Follow our live.
A Franco-Australian national was abducted on Friday “by as yet unidentified individuals” in a province in the east of the country, the Chadian government announced in a press release.
A national tribute will be paid to the painter Pierre Soulages on Wednesday at the Louvre, announced the Elysée.
4:30 p.m. : Two demonstrators were also injured, according to the prefect of Deux-Sèvres, Emmanuelle Dubée, while four people were arrested.
4:33 p.m. : “We already deplore five injured gendarmes, the operations are particularly violent”, explains during a press briefing the prefect of Deux-Sèvres, Emmanuelle Dubée, who deplores “mortar fire, Molotov cocktails and the throwing of various projectiles.”
4:23 p.m. : I wonder who is telling the truth: the greens, 99% camped on positions dating from the 1960s, totally out of time? Or the supporters of these basins who can participate in maintaining a hygrometry allowing cultures? It is obvious that the cultivation of maize in certain rather dry regions has long been an aberration. On the other hand, it is just as obvious that the cultivation of wheat, for example, requires watering when the climatic conditions require it. There is also the case of market gardening and fruit trees. Do we have to import all the fruits and vegetables, because we cannot water the crops? I don’t think so, and I avoid as often as possible buying fruits and vegetables that are not grown in France. So where is the solution?
3:57 p.m. : Me, a farmer in favor of basins… But the media prefer to publicize opposition activists at all
4:02 p.m. : Thank you for talking about the demonstration against bedpans. First vital objective for our children and grandchildren: the change of agriculture.
4:03 p.m. : Hello, we should all be “anti-basins” to preserve, a little, what we have left of water to share and prevent some (in this case the corn planters and the FNSEA) from getting grant us the right to deprive us of it!
3:56 p.m. : In the comments, you clash on the debate about bedpans. These substitute reserves are open-air craters, covered with plastic sheeting and filled by pumping water from surface groundwater in winter. They can store up to 650,000 m3 (260 Olympic swimming pools) of water to irrigate in the summer. The Sainte-Soline reserve is the second of a project of 16 drawn up by a group of 400 farmers united in the Coop de l’eau, to “reduce withdrawals by 70% in summer”.
3:43 p.m. : #Two Sevres. In Sainte-Soline, the demonstrators reach the construction site of the basin despite the roadblocks. https://t.co/PqrMF3Uk9Y https://t.co/07k825wJOH
3:42 p.m. : “Everyone hates bedpans!” Start of the demonstration in Sainte Soline in Deux Sèvres #megabassin https://t.co/rdEzJMeZ3x
3:41 p.m. : Protesters “antibassines” managed to force gates protecting the construction site of the Sainte-Soline water reserve, in Deux-Sèvres. Some of them also managed to get inside, according to the same source. Some 4,000 protesters left in three processions to bypass the device of 1,500 gendarmes intended to protect this water reserve site for irrigation.