Five months after the violent clashes in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres, western France), several hundred basin opponents left on Friday near this controversial agricultural irrigation reserve for a week-long journey by bike .
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In Lezay, a neighboring town of Sainte-Soline, some 700 pedaling comrades “, According to the organization, and about twenty tractors gathered Friday noon in a field in the middle of bicycle repair shops or a disc jockey turntable. The colorful and good-natured procession set off around 3 p.m. from Lezay for its first stage, to Jazeneuil in Vienne.
“ The idea is to do a positive activity after what happened in Sainte-Soline […]to say that we are still here, that we are still against this mega-basin project “, told AFP Annick Huet, facilitator of ecology workshops in Melle (Deux-Sèvres), bike loaded with a foam mattress and topped with a blue flag “ Water is a common good “.
At a rate of fifty kilometers per day, the planned route crosses five departments (Deux-Sèvres, Vienne, Indre-et-Loire, Loir-et-Cher, Loiret) to denounce “ water grabbing and its public funding, according to the organizers. It must reach Orléans on Friday August 25, headquarters of the Loire Bretagne Water Agency, which co-finances this type of project aimed at storing up to 6 million cubic meters of water drawn from groundwater in winter in large cavities. outdoors, to irrigate crops in summer when rainfall is scarce. The procession will be punctuated by a “surprise” mobilization on August 26 in Paris.
Important police force
After the highly publicized repression demonstrators in march, with two activists for a time plunged into a coma, the authorities have planned an important security device. A helicopter and a drone patrolled the skies of Lezay, roads were closed to traffic and several motorcyclists had to ensure the opening and closing of the convoy. More than a hundred gendarmes were mobilized around the departure, we learned from a source close to the police, against 3,200 during the stormy demonstration in March.
Declared to the prefectures concerned, this “Water convoy” is however intended to be “ a merry procession » which will stop near several locally contested agricultural projects, promise the collective Bassines non merci and the agricultural union Confédération paysanne, who are co-organizing it.
For Laurence Marandola, spokesperson for the Confédération paysanne, mega-basin projects elsewhere in the world have already shown their limits. “ We have hindsight, we know that there were many in Chile and Spain. And they are even more able to fill the basins. it has completely destroyed the water tables, the surrounding rivers and there is no more water to fill the basins “, insists Laurence Marandola interviewed by RFI.
The Uprisings of the Earth, which had co-organized the last demonstrations in Sainte-Soline, were present after the suspension in justice of the dissolution of the collective pronounced by the government.
Request for moratorium
” We are calling for a moratorium on all bedpan projects throughout the national territory “, said Friday Julien Le Guet, the leader of Bassines no thank you. ” This convoy is the way we consider the most effective to carry the message at this time. It does not bode well for the future. You have to be very clear : if tomorrow, there is a start of construction while the basin committee asks for an appeasement, how to predict what will be the reaction of the people of this territory ? “, he added.
At the beginning of July, the Loire-Bretagne basin committee, a sort of water parliament bringing together users, elected officials and the State, voted a motion for “ promote dialogue », review the governance of this type of project or even better take into account the consequences of climate change, in particular the evaporation of water. Extremely rare, it was hailed by irrigators and opponents.
Also to listenReport France – Mega-basins and water war
(And with AFP)