In the midst of a historic drought, several thousand demonstrators intend to defy the ban on the prefecture of Deux-Sèvres on Saturday, October 29 to shout their opposition to the “basins” near the site of a new water reserve intended for agricultural irrigation. The “Bassines Non Merci” collective, which brings together environmental associations, trade unions and anti-capitalist groups opposed to this “water grabbing” intended for“agro industry”announced the presence of 10,000 people.
>> In the Deux-Sèvres, in the face of drought, storing water in “mega-basins” does not flow from a source
The prefect of Deux-Sèvres Emmanuelle Dubée spoke on Friday around “5,000” demonstrators expected from 10 a.m. in this village of around 350 inhabitants, which has become the new epicenter of a conflict over the use of this resource which is becoming scarce with global warming. Earlier this week, she banned “all demonstrations and gatherings” around Sainte-Soline.
The goal is to “restrict” possible “acts of violence” and “to make the whole site safer for farmers”, she justified on Friday. About 200 elected officials, lawyers or professors denounced a breach of “the fundamental freedom to demonstrate” in a column published Thursday evening by Release. Among the signatories, elected rebellious or environmentalists like Mathilde Panot, Clémentine Autain, Alexis Corbière or Yannick Jadot, announced on the spot on Saturday.
The Sainte-Soline reserve is the second of 16 replacement reserves, at the heart of a project developed by a group of 400 farmers united in the Coop de l’eau, to “reduce withdrawals by 70% in summer”in this region which is still experiencing irrigation restrictions after an extraordinary summer drought.
These open-air craters, covered with a plastic tarpaulin, are filled by pumping water from surface groundwater in winter and can store up to 650,000 m3 (i.e. 260 Olympic swimming pools). This water is used for irrigation in the summer, when rainfall is less.
Opponents denounce “mega basins” reserved for large export-oriented cereal farms and defend the implementation of other measures to better share and preserve water – agroecology, crop change, return of grasslands… Denis Mousseau, President of the FNSEA 79 who defends this storage project, recalled Thursday “the strong concern” local farmers in the face of calls from organizations to “civil disobedience”.