They are nicknamed “mega-basins” by their detractors. Farmers and the administration prefer the term “substitute reserves”. These huge open-air pools again gave rise to a demonstration on Saturday, October 29, in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres).
>> Controversial basins: follow the evolution of the situation in our live
Created by operators to store the essential needs for agriculture and livestock, these artificial reservoirs are multiplying in France, while the country is experiencing episodes of drought aggravated by global warming. However, some opponents, more and more numerous too, see it as the symbol of an unreasonable agriculture, which would give priority to yields rather than to the protection of the environment. Franceinfo takes stock of the main criticisms made of these initiatives.
Because these basins centralize huge quantities of water in the open air
The proliferation and size of these artificial reservoirs often make environmental activists and anti-globalization activists cringe. In Deux-Sèvres, for example, no less than 16 water reserves must be built to meet irrigation needs. Among the first dug, that called “SEV17” can hold just over 400,000 m3 of water, the equivalent of 160 Olympic swimming pools. The most important of this departmental-scale project will be able to store up to 650,000 m3.
>> REPORTAGE. In the Deux-Sèvres, in the face of drought, storing water in “mega-basins” does not flow from a source
To constitute such reserves, the farmers joined together in cooperative want to pump the invaluable liquid directly in the water tables the winter (from November to March), in order not to have to do it the summer. This agricultural practice, formalized for the first time in France by a memorandum of understanding signed in 2018 in Deux-Sèvres, is accused of disturbing the water cycle by certain organizations for the defense of the environment. On its site, the collective Bassines non merci points out the risks of drying up of courses, accelerated evaporation… or even deregulated pumping of groundwater.
“It’s better to store water in the basement than on the groundbelieves Bruno Parmentier, an engineer specializing in agricultural issues, interviewed on franceinfo channel 27, Saturday October 29. In summer, when it’s very hot, between 30 and 50% of the water that we have stored goes away, it is not useful to you.” Alternatives are put forward to conserve water without going through basins, such as reforestation, the replacement of water-intensive crops (such as corn) or the return of grasslands.
Because some projects are carried out illegally
All the substitution reserves created in France are not supervised like those of Sainte-Soline. 75 kilometers away five agricultural basins dug in Cram-Chaban (Charente-Maritime) were deemed illegal by the Administrative Court of Appeal of Bordeaux on May 17, France Bleu reported. After fourteen years of proceedings, justice has confirmed that the environmental impact study concerning these water reservoirs was “failed”. In detail, the court pointed to the lack of precision as to the consequences for groundwater and rivers.
Memoranda of understanding, like the one signed in Deux-Sèvres, must be used to prevent such a situation. Especially since agricultural irrigation is an ancestral practice. “In my parents’ time, farmers would dig a borehole on their land and take in water,” explained for example to franceinfo last July Thierry Boudaud, elected member of the FNSEA (National Federation of Farmers’ Unions) and president of the Coop de l’eau 79, a private company that manages the reserves of Sainte-Soline.
Faced with controversy, the government wants to play the card of appeasement. Forhe Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, the opponents of these projects “denounce something fair, the need for us to collectively reduce, and farmers too, our water uses”, he said on France Inter on Saturday. While emphasizing, with supporting studies, that the Sainte-Soline project had, for example, “no negative consequences for the tablecloths” groundwater. Not enough to reassure environmental activists, who also demand control of commitments (reduction of pesticides, planting of hedges, etc.) made by operators who use these basins.
Because they are accused of increasing inequalities between farmers
On the side of some farmers too, anger is brewing over these huge water reserves. “You should know that in France the irrigated areas represent about 10% of the agricultural area”explained Saturday on franceinfo Nicolas Girod, spokesman for the Peasant Confederation, himself a farmer and breeder in the Jura. “This means that these basin projects are beneficial for a minority of farmers, he added. There is a grabbing of water by this minority.”
The pill goes all the more badly for farmers resistant to basins as these projects sometimes benefit from significant public funds. The first tranche of the Sainte-Soline project (i.e. six reserves) is, for example, financed “70% by the agency of Loire-Bretagne water and the funds [du] Recovery plan” explain its managers on their site. According to these, “the total cost of the project is estimated at 60 million euros”.
As fears of a “water war” simmer in France, opponents of basins are calling for equal or even greater funding for alternative storage solutions. “IIt seems to us that if we want to get through periods of drought better, we must on the contrary move towards agricultural practices that allow better infiltration of water into the soil, believes Nicolas Girod, so that water is available to everyone.”