Thousands of opponents of “mega-basins”, these giant water reserves dedicated to agricultural irrigation, gathered this Saturday at La Rochénard (Deux-Sèvres), under close surveillance by the police. They were some 4,200 according to the prefecture, 6,000 according to the organizers, to demonstrate against this vast water storage project in the Marais poitevin region. At the origin of this national mobilization, is the collective Bassines Non Merci, spearhead of the opposition to the projects, and the agricultural union of the Confédération paysanne.
“Water common good”
This “Maraichin Spring” scheduled to last until Sunday, also supported by the LPO, EELV, Attac, or France Insoumise, denounces “water grabbing by agribusiness”, “requires work stoppage” and “the establishment of a moratorium on mega-basin projects”. “Water common good» , “Recharge groundwater before storing water”could we read on the banners brandished in a calm crowd, made up of young adults and retirees, families, association and union activists, as well as people who came in overalls or hooded.
On the sidelines of the procession, clashes in the afternoon opposed some demonstrators with the police for an hour, with exchanges of stone throwing, firework mortars, and tear gas and de-encirclement grenades. The first clashes occurred when groups of demonstrators moved towards an area prohibited by the authorities. Shortly before, some had just dug up pipe elements with shovels and pickaxes, “intended to be connected to the network of future basins”, according to the Uprisings of the Earth, co-organizer of the mobilization. Around 6 p.m., the procession calmly returned to the starting point of the demonstration in La Rochénard, according to a journalist on the spot.
200 agricultures against “anti-basins”
Several bladed weapons, including large knives and firework mortars, were seized during preventive searches in the morning, according to the prefecture. The prefectures of Deux-Sèvres and Charente-Maritime, noting “a radical change” of the movement, had issued bans on demonstrations within a perimeter of about ten kilometers in the neighboring municipalities and cut off traffic on several major roads.
To answer to the “anti-basins”about 200 farmers met in Cramchaban (Charente-Maritime), a few kilometers further, at the call of the Rural Coordination, for a “defense rally” near a degraded restraint at a previous protest in November. “We are on our reserves to protect them in case the opponents come to destroy them, when the demonstration is over, we will leave”explains Thierry Boucard, departmental president of the agricultural union and user of the damaged structure.
The “basins”, craters covered with a plasticized membrane, must be fed by rivers and groundwater in winter to serve farmers in summer who irrigate when the resource is lacking. But in recent years, opposition to these projects has crystallized in the Deux-Sèvres, particularly in Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon where the first of the sixteen reservoirs planned for the Sèvre Niortaise basin, crucial for food from the Marais poitevin.