“We are very worried because of the damage to farms during previous gatherings”, alerted Friday on France Bleu Poitou the president of “La Coop de l’eau”, which carries the project for 16 basins in Deux-Sèvres.
Thierry Boudaud, the president of “la Coop de l’eau” which carries the project of 16 basins on the basin of the Sèvre niortaise (Deux-Sèvres) called Friday March 24 on France Bleu Poitou “quiet” ahead of a weekend of protests. He asks “farmers to think of themselves, their families and their protection. Stay where you need to be. There will be violencehe warns. The State, the forces of order must manage this type of situation, but you, do not give in to provocations”.
Several tens of thousands of people are expected during the weekend according to the collective “Bassines No thank you!” in the Deux-Sèvres. The Collective has planned “demonstration-actions” from Friday until Sunday against the project to build water reserves for agricultural irrigation. “We are very worried because of the damage to farms during previous gatherings”explains Thierry Boudaud.
For “the cessation of violence” and the “dialogue”
Several agricultural hectares have been ransacked during previous demonstrations, in particular last October, when the demonstration had degenerated. “We call for calm in this difficult period”, insists Thierry Boudaud, himself a farmer in the department. He pleads for “stop violence” and advocate the “dialogue”.
The farmer believes that the basins are built in “family farms”, “It’s a public institution that shares water between users and farmers. If there is a place where there is no land grabbing, it’s here. If there is a place where there is no agribusiness, damn it is in the south of Sèvres!gets angry the president of the Coop de l’eau. The average size of farms is 80 hectares, from small to medium farms”.
“We will no longer have summer crops, we will no longer be able to feed the animals.”
Thierry Boudaud, president of “the Water Coop”on France Bleu Poitou
Thierry Boudaud responds to the accusations of environmental activists who believe that the project privatizes a resource, water, which belongs to everyone: “If we have no more water in the territory, it is the smallest, most fragile, most diversified agricultural part that will disappear”. It highlights the droughts of “increasingly intense”which will lead to the disappearance of breeding. “We have to save water, it’s important, he acknowledges, but adapting to climate change precisely involves maintaining a diversified model. We don’t want agribusiness on our territory”.
The president of the Coop de l’eau believes that the only way out of the conflict remains negotiation. But “violence kills dialogue, and you have to have a perspective of compromise on sharing, on governance, on the type of agriculture, on transition efforts. We insist a lot on saving water.