Clashes erupted this Saturday March 25 between demonstrators and the police around a disputed water reserve under construction in Sainte-Soline, in Deux-Sèvres. Thousands of people mobilized despite the ban on the gathering.
As the site approached, clashes erupted rapidly between law enforcement and radical activists, with projectile throwing and mortar fire. Police and gendarmes responded with tear gas and water cannon. The images showed police vehicles on fire.
A long procession had started to parade at the end of the morning, made up of at least 6 000 people according to the prefecture, probably a little more, and around 25 000 people, according to the collective of associations “ Basins no thank you “, the environmental movement of the Uprisings of the Earth and the Peasant Confederation, all three organizers of this event.
Demonstration prohibited
More than 3 000 gendarmes and police officers were mobilized on the spot, while “ at least a thousand » of violent activists, ready to fight with law enforcement », take part in the gathering. The prefect called on demonstrators who had no belligerent intention to leave the Sainte-Soline site. She authorized the use of force, reports the newspaper West France.
The demonstration, banned like the last one which had given rise to clashes in the fall, converged on the “ basin of Sainte-Soline, nickname given by their adversaries to water reserves being built in the region for agricultural irrigation. ” The goal is to approach and surround the basin to stop the work said a member of the Earth Uprisings at the start of the procession, which then split into several groups for this purpose.
A “ grabbing » water by « agro-industry “say the opponents
Sixteen reservoirs, with a total capacity of around 6 million cubic meters, are to be built, mainly in Deux-Sèvres, as part of a project led by a cooperative of 450 farmers with state support. It aims to store water in the open air drawn from the surface aquifers in winter, in order to irrigate crops in summer when rainfall is scarce.
Its supporters make it a condition for the survival of farms in the face of the threat of recurring droughts. The opponents denounce, them, a “ grabbing » water by « agro-industry in the age of climate change.
►Also read : “No to basins”: tension on the uses of water, police and environmentalists clash in Deux-Sèvres
(With AFP)