Opponents of mega-basin projects are mobilizing this weekend in France. This Saturday, March 25, from 10 a.m., nearly 10,000 people are expected in the Deux-Sèvres department, despite the prefecture’s bans, to protest against the creation of these giant basins, which are intended to help farmers in the face of the lack of water but which arouse controversy.
The mega-basins, like those under construction in Deux-Sèvres, are artificial lakes of about ten hectares on average, supposed to enable a few farmers to secure their water needs for the irrigation of major cereal crops. But they would deprive other users of water, an increasingly precious resource that is set to become scarce with climate change.
The demonstrators target the work of basins which have already started, at the call of several collectives with the support of unions, NGOs, and left-wing and environmental political parties. They meet again this March 25, five months after the first tense gatherings.
These reservations must to secure » the production of cereals faced with the lack of rain, defends the Minister of Agriculture in the regional press. And Marc Fesneau does not give in to anti-basin activists like Adeline, who denounces the hoarding of water by a minority of farmers defending an intensive cropping system:
” Irrigators who do not want to change their agricultural model have no other solution for finding water. After drilling, pumping in the rivers, the headlong rush continues by creating this system of mega-basins which goes directly to the source, that is to say in the water tables. The problem is that this irrigation pumps out much more water than the environment can give us. »
A nonsense, according to her, at a time of climate change and repeated droughts. Activists are calling for a moratorium on the construction of these basins and a transition to less water-intensive agriculture. But the government denounces a radical movement and expects violence. Demonstrations are also supposed to be prohibited.
” It doesn’t stop people from coming. The problem is there and people want to be heard “, insists Adeline.
Military trucks, quads, helicopters and 3,200 gendarmes and police have already taken position.