At least 5,000 demonstrators are present this Saturday in Sainte-Soline, in Deux-Sèvres, to try to block the construction site of a water reserve, despite the prefectural ban and an imposing gendarmerie system.
A face-to-face began this Saturday afternoon, around 2 p.m., between several thousand demonstrators present in Sainte-Soline, in the Deux-Sèvres department, to try to block the construction site of a water reserve, and the 1700 mobilized gendarmes.
Protesters “antibassines” managed to force gates protecting the site of the water reserve around 3:20 p.m., according to a journalist from Agence France-Presse (AFP) present on the spot. Some of them also managed to get inside. The individuals who degraded the barriers to enter them were then repelled by the gendarmes, we learned from concordant sources.
With an area to cover of several hectares, the police had difficulty containing the crowd, in which hundreds of masked or hooded activists rubbed shoulders with families and many retirees. At least 5,000 people are present, including several hundred ultras, according to concordant sources at BFMTV. Two gendarmerie vans also collided during an emergency maneuver. Tear gas was launched and elected officials sporting their tricolor scarf molested, in particular the environmentalist deputy of Vienna, Lisa Belluco, according to an AFP photographer.
Five gendarmes and two demonstrators injured
Five gendarmes and two demonstrators were injured on Saturday. during a demonstration, prohibited by the prefecture, in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres) against the construction of a water network, announced the prefect Emmanuelle Dubée. Four people were also arrested.
Earlier in the day, the prefect of Deux-Sèvres had indicated on BFMTV that “determined and violent” individuals were on the spot. She intended to “enforce” the ban on demonstrations and had assured that she would not tolerate “a protest procession or groups forming to approach the site of the substitution reserve”.
A project of 16 reserves
The demonstrators oppose a project of water basins for agriculture, which are used to irrigate the fields. The collective “Bassines Non Merci”, which brings together environmental associations, trade unions and anti-capitalist groups, says it is opposed to this “grabbing of water” intended for “agro-industry”.
“Sainte-Soline is 720,000 cubic meters of water over more than 10 hectares, 18 kilometers of pipes for farmers, not one of whom has given up pesticides. We don’t want that to happen here, we don’t doesn’t want it to be done elsewhere”, launched this Saturday morning Melissa Gingreau, spokesperson for the collective “Bassines Non Merci”.
Surrogate reserves are open craters covered with plastic sheeting and filled by pumping water from surface groundwater in winter. They can store up to 650,000 m3 (260 Olympic swimming pools) of water to irrigate in the summer.
The Sainte-Soline reserve is the second of a project of 16 drawn up by a group of 400 farmers united in the Coop de l’eau, to “reduce water withdrawals by 70%”, in this region still subject to irrigation restrictions after an unusual summer drought.
“No negative consequences for groundwater”
The Minister for the Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, underlined on France inter that the “project had no negative consequences for” water tables, according to a recent report.
According to this study by the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM), the project could, compared to the period 2000-2011, increase “by 5% to 6%” the flow of rivers in summer, against a decrease by 1% in winter, without taking into account the potential evaporation of future reserves, nor the threat of recurring droughts linked to global warming.
The Minister also recalled that the “plan signed by everyone four years ago” after a long consultation between farmers, elected officials, authorities and associations, made access to water conditional on changes in practices (reduction of pesticides , planting of hedges, conversion to agroecology). But none of the ten farmers using the first deduction “has subscribed to a reduction in pesticides”, according to Vincent Bretagnolle, member of the scientific and technical monitoring committee (CST) of the project, and since the signing, several associations have withdrawn from the protocol. .
Denis Mousseau, president of the FNSEA 79 which defends this storage project, recalled Thursday “the strong concern” of local farmers in the face of this gathering. “We are not fighting against farmers, we are fighting against the tools of agro-industry which makes peasants disappear,” said Nicolas Girod, spokesman for the Confédération paysanne. “In 30 years, the number of peasants has been divided by three”.