Bassines: the construction of a new reservoir starts in the Deux-Sèvres

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: Delphine Lefebvre / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 16:19 p.m., August 28, 2023

The work of a third "basin" began Monday in the Deux-Sèvres in Priaires, two days after the arrival in Paris of a convoy of opponents to these water reservoirs for agricultural irrigation, left ten days earlier from Sainte-Soline. "We are starting this new project as planned in the schedule of the first phase of the project," Thierry Boudaud, president of the Coop de l'eau 79, a group of farmers who carry the project of these disputed reserves, announced in a statement.

Towards a new Sainte-Soline?

Earthmoving machinery has arrived to begin the work that will last until the end of the year, according to the same source. The Priaires basin is due to come into service in 2024. With a capacity of 160,000 cubic meters, it is the smallest of the 16 programmed in the department. A first is operating in Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon and another is under construction in Sainte-Soline, where several demonstrations over the past two years have led to clashes between opponents and police - the last, at the end of March, was the most violent.

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"On our territories, the atmosphere is unbreathable. We demand the immediate suspension of work, an essential condition for the return of dialogue, so that Priaires does not become a new Saint Soline," said ecologists Lisa Belluco, MP for Vienne, and Benoît Biteau, MEP and farmer in Charente-Maritime.

"We cannot dialogue if the government continues to build new basins"

Saturday in Paris, at the end of a convoy left by bike and tractor on August 18 from Sainte-Soline, a thousand people marched to protest against these detentions. The day before, opponents had demanded in vain a moratorium from the Loire-Bretagne Water Agency in Orleans. The installation of grids in Priaires, prior to the start of the work, had poisoned the debate. "We tried another way, that of appeasement, of a resumption of dialogue. But we can not dialogue if the government continues the construction of new basins, "said Saturday at a press briefing the spokesman of the movement The Uprisings of the Earth, Benoît Feuillu, evoking new actions "to dismantle the sites".

On 8 September, nine representatives of environmental and trade union movements will be tried in Niort for organising demonstrations banned by the authorities in Sainte-Soline. "A big rally of support will be organized. And we will not be far from Priaires," the activist added.

These reserves dug into the earth and called "mega-basins" by opponents, aim to store in the open air water drawn from the surface aquifers in winter, in order to irrigate crops in summer when rainfall is scarce. Their supporters make it an essential crop insurance for their survival and a tool for the transition to agroecology. Opponents denounce a "grabbing" of water by "agribusiness".