The collective opposition to the “megabasins” has no intention of giving up. Opponents of the project of these water reserves for agricultural use which should see the light in Deux-Sèvres, announced the organization of a new event on March 25th.
“We are announcing the largest historic demonstration in Poitou-Charentes, the largest demonstration for the defense of water as a common good,” said Julien Le Guet, spokesman for the collective of opponents “Bassines non merci”, on the sidelines of a press conference . The location of this demonstration has not been specified but the organizers hope to bring together “several tens of thousands of people”.
At the end of October, several thousand people (4,000 according to the authorities, 7,000 according to the organizers) they had already gathered in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres) to protest the construction of a reservoir. The “basin” of Sainte-Soline is a of the 16 reserves of several hundred thousand m3 which will see the light in Deux-Sèvres. Developed by a group of 400 farmers with state support, this project aims to make water available for irrigation during the summer by pumping groundwater during the winter.
After the mobilization of Sainte-Soline, the group of opponents gave the government fifteen days to decree a “moratorium on all water storage projects” and put an end to the construction site. But it resumed on November 8, while a similar project was being validated in nearby Vienna.
The protesters will soon be tried
On November 28, anti-basin activists also plan to gather in front of the Niort courthouse, where five people arrested in Sainte-Soline for “participation in a group formed to prepare for violence” will be tried. The demonstration was marred by violence because some opponents had managed to force the gates of the site, before being rejected by some of the 1,500 gendarmes mobilized to ban access to the site. Protesters and police had deplored dozens of injured people, some of whom had been hospitalized.
Other mobilizations in support of those arrested during the previous demonstrations will take place on 5 and 6 January in La Rochelle and Niort, while a demonstration will be organized on 15 December in front of the headquarters of the Loire Water Agency. a board meeting.
A first tank was put into service in Mauzé-sur-Mignon, where a large-scale event – the “Maraichin Spring” – was already held on March 25th.
