Up to 10,000 people are expected this weekend in Deux-Sèvres to defend water sharing and protest against the plans for mega-irrigation basins. This gathering is under heavy police surveillance as these artificial water reservoirs are contested.
:quality(50)/2023/07/07/64a7df4c5fe71_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Update
Reading time: 3 min
:quality(50)/2024/07/18/000-326y4w9-6698a142c4b23531904470.jpg)
More than 3,000 police officers and gendarmes are being mobilised to deal with a new gathering against megabasins this week in Poitou. These are artificial water reservoirs used for irrigation. These megabasins are not supplied by rainwater but only by pumping from a water table or a river.
For their defenders, these basins are a response to the scarcity of water linked to climate change. The idea is that by filling the basins in winter when water is abundant, reserves are created to water the fields in summer. But opponents denounce a hoarding of water by certain groups of farmers who practice large-scale irrigation. Because not all farms have access to these basins.
The problem is that we still lack data and perspective on the uses of these basins. There has nevertheless been work published by groups of scientists such as the IPCC, the High Council for Climate or INRAE (National Institute for Research on Agriculture, Food and the Environment). These studies confirm both the need for agriculture to adapt to drier summers in the future and therefore the need to find solutions. But they also point to uncertainties about the capacity to fill these basins every year by the end of the century, because there is a risk of great variability in precipitation from one year to the next. There are also questions about the correct sizing of these basins, so as not to unbalance the water tables. Finally, some scientists fear that these water reserves will discourage efforts at moderation and that they will delay the use of less water-intensive crops.
Basin projects are currently mainly located in Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Pays de la Loire. But the Centre region and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes are also concerned. Several thousand demonstrators protested last May against a gigabassine project in Puy-de-Dôme. Opposition to basins is also increasingly being made in court. Their detractors put forward as a legal argument, in particular, the responsibility of the State or local authorities to manage water resources in a balanced and sustainable way for all.
