About sixty people were injured on the side of the gendarmes, around thirty on the side of the demonstrators
this Saturday, during a rally against a “mega-basin” project for agricultural irrigation in Sainte-Soline in Deux-Sèvres. The demonstration had been banned by the prefecture, but between 3,000 and 4,000 opponents of the project gathered near the construction site of a future water reservoir, which they say represents a form of “water grabbing” for “agro-industry”.
Store water in winter for irrigation in summer
These basins are filled by pumping water from groundwater in winter. They will be able to store 650,000 m3 of water, the equivalent of 260 Olympic swimming pools. The water can then be used for irrigation in the summer, when it rains less.
“I am scandalized to see the turn it is taking. There is a kind of dogmatism and ideology at the origin of these demonstrations and which is not at all in line with what society needs. Of course drinking water is a priority but food is also a priority”, reacts Eric Frétillère, the president of the irrigators. The farmer lives in the Dordogne, in Saint-Rémy-sur-Lidoire.
“In these regions, in Deux-Sèvres and Charente, if tomorrow these projects do not see the light of day, it will be a desert with a few sheep in deserted meadows”, he insists. According to him, there are no water problems in France, there are. What will change with climate change is the distribution of rainfall. He explains that it will rain a lot in winter, and little in summer. And according to him one of the solutions, if we want to continue to eat, is to retain and store water. “These withdrawals which pump into the groundwater in winter at a time when it is in excess, avoid pumping into the waterways in summer”concludes the farmer.