The administrative court of Poitiers canceled this Tuesday, October 3, fifteen megabasin projects, these gigantic water reservoirs dedicated to agricultural irrigation.
For the “Bassines non merci” collective, it is a victory on the merits because the court is based on the argument of non-adaptation to global warming.
He is hopeful that future court decisions on Sèvre Niortaise projects will definitively discourage project leaders and signal the end of basins in France.
The administrative court of Poitiers canceled this Tuesday, October 3, fifteen mega-basin projects, these gigantic water reservoirs which draw from aquifers or rivers to be used for agricultural irrigation, in Charente, in Deux-Sèvres and in Vienna. The Vienne prefecture has already announced its intention to appeal but this remains “good news because these projects are canceled until further notice, so nothing will start on site”, estimates Julien Le Guet, spokesperson for the Vienne prefecture. collective Bassines no thankscreated in 2017.
Projects deemed harmful in substance
These are not the first cancellations by the courts of these water reserves. In Charente-Maritime for example, five projects have already been deemed illegal in February 2023 but highlighting that they contravened the SAGE, the water management plan, which regulates the volumes that can be taken from the natural environment. . The decision of the Poitiers court is unprecedented in the sense that it goes further, pointing out “oversized” projects which do not take into account “the predictable effects of climate change”. The court even concluded that there was “a manifest error of assessment” by the prefecture “in the implementation of the principle of balanced and sustainable management of the resource” defined by the Environmental Code. A deliberation which makes the anti-basins say that their arguments have come a long way, after six years of militant actions.
“We almost always win because it is the European framework law of the Environmental Code which prevails and it gives priority to drinking water, then to aquatic environments and only afterwards to economic projects,” analyzes Julien Le Watch. Intrinsically, bedpans flout these principles.” The appeals have always borne fruit according to him, except in Vendée where “the nature protection associations have not done their job”, he says.
Decisions expected to “sign the end of bedpans in France”
“This is a very big blow for project leaders, including the State,” believes Julien Le Guet. The Sèvre Niortaise [principale artère hydraulique du marais Poitevin] This is the flagship issue, and decision-makers are watching this issue closely, it is the final battle. » Two other decisions should be rendered soon, without dates being available. One by the Bordeaux court concerning reserve projects in Deux-Sèvres, including Sainte-Soline and, the other by the Poitiers court on the Priaire basin, a commune in Deux-Sèvres bordering Charente- Maritime. In the opinion of the spokesperson for Bassines non merci, these decisions could “sign the end of basins in France”. There is an emergency since the basin of Sainte-Soline is being plasticized and that of Priaire is being dug.
The collective hopes that this decision of the Poitiers court on fifteen reservations will set a precedent and says it is confident since the job of judges is to “say the law”. Knowing that the time for administrative justice may be very far away and may lead to being presented with a fait accompli, he requests a moratorium on all basin projects, which exist on around fifteen rivers in France.