Where are the water wars (and those to come) in France?

The demonstration against the mega-basin project in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sevres), Saturday, will be remembered. Not only because of the 30,000 people who participated and the 3,300 gendarmes and police deployed opposite. But also and above all by the number of wounded left behind: 47 on the police side, 200 on the demonstrators’ side, including two in a coma.

The mobilization bitterly recalls that against the dam project in Sivens (Tarn) of October 26, 2014, which resulted in the death of Rémi Fraisse, 21, killed by the explosion of a stun grenade. Already then, water and the feeling of its monopolization by a handful of irrigating farmers were at the heart of the tensions. Proof that this water war in the Sèvre Niortaise is not the first. And not the last, to listen to Alexis Guilpart, coordinator of the “water and aquatic environments” network of France nature environment, which brings together more than 9,000 local associations, many of which are involved in water disputes. Where are they ? Where will they appear?

If the tensions around the projects of mega basins in the Sèvre niortaise monopolize the attention today, Alexis Guilpart lists other water conflicts in France. – F. Pouliquen / 20 minutes

The basins of Clain in Vienne

We are not far from Sainte-Soline, in the neighboring department of Vienne, in the basin of the Clain river. “It is the next territory which risks undergoing a similar rise in tension”, predicts Alexis Guilpart. The origin of the conflict is the same: basins, these large water reservoirs that a collective of irrigators wants to build. Thirty in total (41 initially), always with the stated aim of filling these reservoirs in the winter to use them in the summer and thus having less to take from the groundwater. ” EPTB Viennathe public institution that manages the resource in the region, has ordered a vast study, published this month, analyzing the resource available today and in the future, as well as ways to adapt our uses of water to this new situation, says Alexis Guilpart. She rightly considers this project of 30 oversized basins. But the irrigators, supported by the prefect and local elected officials, are seeking to force through the building permits. For their part, environmental associations are increasing their appeals.

La Têt in the Pyrénées-Orientales

On this river, the longest in the department and which passes through Perpignan, two dams have been erected to avoid possible floods in the fall and also to store water to support irrigating agriculture in the summer. “To have the right to store water, this dam must still allow a minimum biological flow to pass for the needs of the fauna and flora downstream,” explains Alexis Guilpart. The prefect of the department had granted an exemption in recent years allowing a lower flow rate than expected. »

Seized by associations, the administrative court of Montpellier canceled this derogation last autumn, provoking the anger of local farmers, with a demonstration on January 24 in Perpingan. This prompted the prefect to appeal the court’s decision. A bad signal, according to FNE.

The Caussade lake in Lot-et-Garonne

We go back to the north, but we always stay in the south-west quarter of France * with “Caussade Lake”, between Toulouse and Bordeaux. “Lake”?, Alexis Guilpart does not really like the word. “It’s much more an artificial body of water generated by a dam across a river, still for irrigation purposes,” he says.

As of 2018, several expert opinions have warned of the risk that this work poses to water management in the region. Both by the Environmental Authority, the French Office for Biodiversity or the National Council for the Protection of Nature. However, on June 29, 2018, the prefect of Lot-et-Garonne authorized this dam. A few months later, the administrative court of Bordeaux canceled the authorization. A long soap opera then begins, mixing court decisions, forceful passage on the ground and strange, if not complacent attitude of the State “, deplores FNE.

A certainty, “despite six disputes won in court stipulating that the work is totally illegal, not only was it built, but it continues to be used each irrigation season”, continues Alexis Guilpart, who again sees the tensions . Marine Tondelier, national secretary of EELV, was able to realize this on Tuesday during a trip to the region. His arrival in Marmande was disrupted by activists from the rural Coordination agricultural union reproaching him for his participation in the Sainte-Soline demonstration.

Vittel, Volvic and the mineral water industry

Water conflicts are not always linked to agricultural uses. The mineral water industry also causes tensions where it draws on groundwater to fill its bottles. This is the case at Vittel (Vosges) with Nestlé Waters, accused of pumping too much water, to the point that one of these sheets is threatened with exhaustion in this region more spared from droughts. The company “takes on average the equivalent of the consumption of a city of 40,000 inhabitants every day”, compared Bernard Schmitt, spokesman for the collective Water 88In The world last summer. “It was even imagined to build a pipeline network to bring in the water consumed by the inhabitants of neighboring aquifers”, recalls Alexis Guilpart. The project was abandoned by the state and the multinational in 2019. Since then, the territory has always been looking for solutions. A water development and management plan must be voted on shortly, reported in February The media Reporterre.

“We have almost the same conflict at Volvic (Puy-de-Dome) with Danone, continues Alexis Guilpart. Again, legal challenges have been launched and tensions are growing. »

La Clusaz and its hillside reservoir

The increasing irregularity of precipitation in the Alps, which should accentuate global warming, jeopardizes the practice of skiing in mid-mountain resorts and the entire economy behind it. To overcome this lack of water, La Clusaz wants to create a hill reservoir, “a kind of basin again [d’une surface de cinq terrains de football], making it possible to store water with a view, essentially, to ensuring the station’s artificial snow cover”, describes Alexis Guilpart. A project at 10 million euros which would require digging 148,000 m3 in the mountain, by derogating from the rules for the protection of biodiversity, point out local associations.

As with agricultural basins, Alexis Guilpart sees it as another example of poor adaptation to climate change. “Without saying that we must stop all artificial snow production, the challenge is not to lock ourselves into economic dependence on it either,” he believes. On October 25, the administrative court of Grenoble suspended the project.

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