Tension is rising little by little in the Sèvre Niortaise around a project for 16 water basins, each covering several hectares, which an agricultural cooperative wants to build to deal with the lack of water which now occurs almost every summer.
Farmers assure that these water reservoirs, 70% financed by public money, will allow a more sustainable management of the resource, by storing water in winter to withdraw less in summer.
For its part, “Bassines, non merci” denounces the headlong rush of an intensive agricultural system.
For the group of opponents, the priority is to further reduce agricultural water needs, which increased sharply after 1980.
From the top of the improvised watchtower, the view is breathtaking over the wheat field which extends to the hedge in the distance.
Julien Le Guet precisely points to this line.
"The basin will go over there," he says.
The footprint will be five hectares.
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"Bassin" say the opponents of the project.
In the opposite camp, farmers prefer “water reservoirs”.
The two words describe the same reality: the creation of water reserves for agricultural use in the Sèvre Niortaise basin, in part of the Marais poitevin.
Surrounded by dykes and ten meters deep for the largest, they will store the water drawn from groundwater and watercourses by nearby collection points.
The project, led by the Coop de l'eau, a cooperative society founded by farmers, plans to build 16 basins, mainly in the south of Deux-Sèvres.
They will supply water to 230 farms in the region.
Up to 15 hectares in Amuré
The one shown by Julien Le Guet, from the collective of opponents “Bassines non merci”, is number 17, planned for Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon.
It's not the biggest.
"The basin of Amuré, a few kilometers away, is planned to cover 15 hectares [land footprint]", he specifies.
But this is for now the epicenter of the fight.
Because Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon is affected, on its own, by three reservations.
And because this basin 17 is part of the first section of water reservoirs that the Coop de l'eau wants to build.
The first shovels are expected around March 2020. But “Bassine non merci” is already ready.
Hence this watchtower that completes a ZAD (zone to defend), a few steps away, occupied since June 30.
“It's a start, assures the collective.
ZADs could open near the six basins of the first phase in the coming weeks”.
"They have no interest in occupying fields," retorts Thierry Boudaud, farmer in Amuré and president of the Coop de l'eau.
Vibe.
"Securing crops by limiting summer harvests"
On both sides, however, the starting point is the same.
In this Poitevin marsh, the second largest wetland in France, there is now a lack of water almost every summer, making it necessary to restrict uses for farmers and individuals alike.
This is still the case these days.
"Here, you will not find climatosceptics, warns Thierry Boudaud.
The observation is implacable: we are approaching Mediterranean climates in summer, with increasingly frequent heat peaks.
We have not changed the date of planting seedlings.
On the other hand, in one generation, the harvests have been brought forward by a week.
It is enormous.
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This is the whole promise, then, of these basins, according to the Coop de l'eau.
They will make it possible to secure crops while limiting withdrawals from groundwater in the summer.
How ?
By filling these basins in winter, when the rains are abundant.
“Today, we let it go to the ocean without any recovery,” laments Thierry Boudaud.
On paper, the calculations of the project leaders are exciting.
“At the beginning of the 2000s, in the Sèvre Niortaise basin, we withdrew 24 million m³ of water annually, all in the summer, continues the president of the Coop de l'eau.
We have already greatly reduced this consumption and, for this water reservoir project, the reference volume of water that can be withdrawn over the year is set at 12.7 million m³, including 7.5 million in winter.
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"When we bathed in the summer in the Mignon"
Julien Le Guet denounces a fraud on the figures, which would allow farmers to consume more water than they do today.
“La Coop de l'eau has estimated its needs based on its consumption over the past fifteen years,” he begins.
However, over this period, there were bad seasons with withdrawals of around 25 million m³ in the worst years.
In the initial project, the Coop de l'eau asked for an authorization to withdraw 18 million m³.
True, the volume was reduced to 12.7.
This is too much, knowing that their consumption, in recent years, has been around 10 million m³, which is already higher than what the environment can support today.
And we must add the future impacts linked to climate change”.
"At the table", "We want lobster and water in our rivers" chant the anti-basins next to the Prefecture of #DeuxSèvres where Francois de #Rugy the Minister of Ecology is due to arrive https://t .co/QueJ3sHMuS pic.twitter.com/KWGZ9Yj45E
— France Bleu Poitou (@Bleu_Poitou) July 11, 2019
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At "Bassines non merci", we regret the old days, "when we grew lentils in the marshes, when we bathed in the summer in the Mignon [one of the tributaries of the Sèvre Niortaise] and when water withdrawals for agricultural purposes were minimal in the basin”, describes Jean-Jacques Guillet.
The former mayor of Amuré, another spokesperson for the collective, places the start of the downturn in the early 1980s. he.
The crop is very profitable for the farmer, but it is also very water-intensive in the summer.
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Condition the water in the basins to good environmental practices
For opponents, these sixteen basins symbolize the headlong rush of intensive agriculture.
“This system is that of only a minority of farmers in the basin who are still trying to stuff themselves with water, plague Jean-Jacques Guillet.
And the politicians approve.
The project – estimated at 60 million euros – is 70% covered by public money.
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Faced with criticism, the Coop de l'eau has revised its copy.
From 19 basins, the project went to 16 and the volume of water required to be withdrawn, therefore, from 16.8 million m³ to 12.7.
Above all, Thierry Boudaud talks about the memorandum of understanding signed on December 18 with the public authorities** and environmental associations.
The document enacts the principle of the construction of basins, in return for which irrigating farmers undertake to modify their practices.
“Already in water management, begins Thierry Boudaud.
We have reduced our needs in recent years, by investing in more precise irrigation technologies, which limit waste, or by moving towards less water-intensive crops.
Maize cultivation, for example, has declined in the region.
These efforts will continue.
Shared environmental associations
This memorandum of understanding has left its mark on “Bassines non merci”.
Associations formerly supporting the collective have signed it.
This is the case of Deux Sèvres Naure Environnement.
“The agreement will make it possible to continue the momentum initiated in recent years in the basin, by bringing the most irrigating farmers, those still lagging behind on issues of water management or biodiversity, to review their practices, justifies Yannick Maufras, its president.
The protocol is clear for the latter: the payment of public aid is conditional on the commitment to these good practices "and we can, at the slightest deviation, leave the agreement".
"Bassines no thank you" does not believe it.
"The counterparties listed do not go far enough and the farmer only needs to commit to one of them to access the water from the basins", criticizes Julien Le Guet.
Be that as it may, for communities, these 16 basins are the last solution to consider for managing water resources.
There are many other avenues to explore upstream, they believe.
Starting with supporting and financing agro-ecological measures capable of conserving water in the soil, while promoting local production.
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A struggle that calls for others?
If it lost strength in December, the collective ensures that it has not lost the game and is looking for support far beyond the Sèvre Niortaise.
Last weekend, they were on the ZAD of Notre-Dame des Landes to make contacts there.
The collective is also looking at other regions where farmers are carrying out projects.
In Picardy, in the Center region, in Morbihan… “The list of these conflicts will grow even longer as the resource becomes increasingly scarce”, predicts Julien Le Guet.
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** The prefect of Deux-Sèvres, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, the department of Deux-Sèvres...
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