The national secretary of Europe-Ecologie-les-Verts Marine Tondelier affirms that the opponents of the basins are winning the administrative procedures against the construction of these giant water reserves. But this is an exaggeration, in reality it is too early to draw definitive conclusions.
Friday September 8, before the trial of anti-basin activists for the organization of prohibited demonstrations in Sainte-Soline, in Deux-Sèvres, begins and is then suspended and postponed for “the serenity of the debates”the national secretary of Europe-Ecologie-les-Verts preferred to direct the debate on the administrative procedures to prevent the construction of these giant water reserves used by certain farmers, in the 8:30 am of franceinfo.
Marine Tondelier affirmed that the anti-basins won these procedures every time. “There are plenty of summary proceedings and appeals in all directions that we have been winning one by one for years”, she assured. True or false ?
Three victories out of four completed procedures
In reality, the ecologist exaggerates a little. The anti-basins do not win their appeals “one by one”, as she says. Some are rejected by the courts, others are actually validated after long administrative procedures.
We must all the same concede to Marine Tondelier that, of the four proceedings which have been definitively completed in the former Poitou-Charentes region, three were won by opponents of water reserves, i.e. a large majority, as shown by the monitoring of procedures carried out by the Nature environment 17 association and the Bassines collective, no thanks, updated by franceinfo. Thus, the construction of the six basins of the Curé, the five of Les Roches and the two of Benon, in Charente-Maritime, was prohibited.
They only lost one of these four fights. It was in June 2020. While the opponents of the construction of eight basins in La Clouère in Vienne had won at first instance in May 2019 at the administrative court of Poitiers, the administrative court of appeal of Bordeaux finally ruled in favor of the Ministry of Ecological Transition in second instance. No appeal to the Council of State had been filed at the time, so the battle ended there and the eight basins were authorized.
Seven proceedings in progress
Nevertheless, despite these three victories out of four procedures, it is difficult to draw overall conclusions saying that justice would give more reason to one than to the other, because the majority of administrative procedures are still in progress. Seven files are still open.
The administrative court of Poitiers validated the construction of water reserves in four of them, in Auxances, in middle Clain and in Dive-Bouleure-Clain upstream in Vienne – namely 27 basins in total on Clain – as well as in the Sèvre-Niortaise and the Mignon, in the Deux-Sèvres, where 16 reserves are to be built, including the very controversial Sainte-Soline basin, which has already come out of the ground, which was the scene of clashes between certain anti- basins and law enforcement in March 2023.
Defenders of the environment and opponents of what appears to them to be a privatization of water have appealed these four decisions. If they are still waiting for a response from the Administrative Court of Appeal of Bordeaux concerning the Sèvre-Niortaise and the Mignon, the opponents already know that this court has again proven them wrong for the other three. According to concordant sources at franceinfo, the activists have decided to continue the battle by sending three appeals to the Council of State.
Among the seven files mentioned above, there is only one for which the opponents of basins won in the first instance, it is that of La Boutonne in Charente-Maritime (the other side of this file, in Deux-Sèvres, has not yet been submitted by the builders, so it has not yet been able to be contested by opponents). But this time it was the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Syres 17 who appealed.
The last two cases – the construction of nine basins in Aume-Couture in Charente and six others in La Pallu in Vienne – will begin their course in court on September 19, 2023.
Sometimes more than ten years of administrative battle
These procedures are therefore very long and difficult. In Charente-Maritime, the battle between opponents of the five Roches reserves lasted 14 years. The one against the two from Benon lasted 13 years. And even for these files that went to the Council of State, while the anti-basins are supposed to have definitively won, farmers and other pro-basins still have the right to resubmit requests to build water reserves. at the same location. This is how the Roches file has already gone through a full course of justice twice, with a passage before the administrative court, then before the administrative court of appeal, then before the Council of State.
As Marine Tondelier did during her interview, the activists contacted by franceinfo regret that none of their appeals are suspensive. Between the first filing of an appeal before the administrative court and the final decision of the Council of State, while the procedure can last for years, construction work on water reserves is never suspended. Thus, a basin was still built in Les Roches, before being banned. It was even used for a time to store water, which led opponents to file a criminal complaint this time for illegal exploitation.
Similarly, a water reserve is already functioning in Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon, the construction of another is well advanced in Sainte-Soline and that of a third has just started at the beginning of September in Deux-Sèvres, while the administrative procedure is still in progress.
“In 16 years of procedures, we have never succeeded in preventing the construction of a basin,” deplores an activist on the front line in the fight to franceinfo. He believes that after so many years and so much public money invested, there is little chance that the reserves already built will be destroyed in the end. But he hopes at least for improvements in construction projects that pose water resource management problems and environmental trade-offs to try to lessen the decline in biodiversity.