They brandish the color blue to defend water as a “common good”. Several thousand opponents of the construction of “the two largest megabasins in France” are participating this Saturday in a major “educational, festive and artistic hike” in Puy-de-Dôme.
The procession, between 4,000 participants according to the prefecture and 6,500 according to the organizers, set off mid-morning in a good-natured atmosphere to denounce the construction projects for two water reserves. These “gigabassines”, one of 14 hectares, the other of 18 hectares, are intended to irrigate 800 hectares in the Limagne plain, where Limagrain, the 4th largest seed company in the world, is located.
The authorities deployed 400 elements assisted by a helicopter, reinforced security measures due to the “sensitive” nature of this hike in the fields after the violent clashes that occurred during the mobilization of Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres) the year last.
It’s “Robin Hood in reverse”
“We must turn back the basin” or even “Death to tarpaulins” could we read on the signs of the demonstrators, in blue clothes and wigs to “symbolize water” at the request of the organizers – including Extinction Rebellion and the Uprisings of the Earth. The crowd on foot, on bikes or in strollers, with their children or their dogs, of all generations, walked to the site planned for the construction of water reservoirs for agricultural purposes.
The BNM collective denounces “gigabasins” which “will be filled directly by pumping” in Allier, “an area classified Natura 2,000 which locally supports the drinking water supply of more than 200,000 inhabitants”. “In this country, the agro-industrialists, the people who make money, are much more heard, (…) it’s Robin Hood in reverse,” protests the national secretary of environmentalists Marine Tondelier, among the demonstrators. LFI MP Clémence Guetté, who introduced a moratorium bill on mega basins, denounces “the government’s intention to support agribusiness to the detriment of small farmers”.
Collections have more than doubled in ten years
For its part, Limagrain explains that “it is essential that farmers can continue to produce quality crops in sufficient quantity” and therefore “irrigate when necessary”, in the name of “food security” in times of climate change. . These megabasin projects, carried out by the Association Syndicale Libre des Turleuros – which brings together 36 farmers, including the president of the Limagrain cooperative – have not yet been the subject of a formal request for authorization, and their opponents hope to obtain a moratorium.
According to the agricultural cooperative, the reservoirs would be filled by sampling in Allier between November 1 and March 31, respecting the authorized flow rate of 45.7 m3/second. Water withdrawals intended for irrigation more than doubled between 2010 and 2020 in France, reaching 3.42 billion m3 in 2020, according to a report from the regional chamber of the Court of Auditors of Nouvelle-Aquitaine published in July 2023.