Calm, but for how long?

About 2,000 people, according to the authorities, remained present this Sunday near the construction site of a water reserve intended for agricultural irrigation in Deux-Sèvres, after a demonstration and violent clashes with the police on Saturday. .

"This morning it's calm, but I remind you that the demonstration remains prohibited, so that any act aimed at trying again to enter the site of the reserve will again be ruled out", declared on franceinfo the prefect of the department, Emmanuelle Dubee.

The demonstration turns into a confrontation

On Saturday, several thousand people (4,000 according to the authorities, 7,000 according to the organizers) gathered in Sainte-Soline, east of Niort, to protest against the construction of a "mega-basin".

This vast reserve, intended for irrigation, is denounced by its detractors as “water grabbing” by agro-industry, coupled with an ecological aberration at a time of global warming and repeated droughts.

This demonstration, in which several elected environmentalists participated, including MEP Yannick Jadot, had been banned and turned into a confrontation with the 1,500 gendarmes mobilized to prevent the demonstrators from entering the site.

After violent clashes, some succeeded briefly before being pushed back.

A new action announced

About sixty gendarmes, according to the Ministry of the Interior, and about fifty demonstrators, according to the collective "Bassines non merci", were injured in this violence attributed by the prefecture to radical militants.

The gendarmerie system was maintained on Sunday, while a new action of “civil disobedience” was announced for the afternoon by the anti-basin collective, which evokes 3,000 to 4,000 people still present.

ZAD or not ZAD?

The movement of opponents should be long-term, the private land they occupy, loaned by a farmer, being available until mid-May.

The construction of a "watchtower" has already begun on the site.

“This will be our basis for the next actions against the site if it were to restart.

ZAD or not ZAD, it will be in these terms, “said AFP Julien Le Guet, spokesperson for the collective, who is calling for a moratorium from the government.

Sainte-Soline is the second of a project of 16 substitution reserves developed four years ago by a group of 400 farmers to reduce their water withdrawals during the summer, thanks to the pumping of surface water tables in winter.

Access to this storage is conditional on the adoption of practices that are more respectful of the environment, but none of the beneficiaries of the first deduction has committed, for the time being, to reducing their use of pesticides.

Planet

Deux-Sèvres: 61 gendarmes and 30 demonstrators injured during clashes at the Sainte-Soline water reserve

Planet

Deux-Sèvres: opponents of "basins" expected in number, despite the ban

  • Planet

  • Water

  • Agriculture

  • Violence

  • Poitou-Charentes

  • Drought