Europe 1 with AFP 11:01 p.m., November 17, 2022

After several days of demonstrations against the construction of a "mega-basin" in Deux-Sèvres, opponents of the project intend to continue their fight.

The latter hope to bring together "several tens of thousands of people" next spring to oppose the continuation of the site.

A new demonstration against the project of water reserves for agricultural use in Deux-Sèvres will take place on March 25, opponents of these "megabasins" announced Thursday, hoping to bring together "several tens of thousands of people".

"We are announcing the biggest historic rally in Poitou-Charentes, the biggest rally for the defense of water as a common good," Julien Le Guet, spokesman for the collective of opponents, told an AFP correspondent. "Basins no thank you", on the sidelines of a press briefing.

The place of this demonstration was not specified.

At the end of October, several thousand people (4,000 according to the authorities, 7,000 according to the organizers) gathered in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres) to protest against the construction of a water reservoir, the second of a project which has 16 in the department.

Dozens of wounded

Some opponents had managed to force the gates of the site, before being repelled by some of the 1,500 gendarmes mobilized to prohibit access to the site.

Demonstrators and police had deplored dozens of injuries, a handful of them having been hospitalized.

On November 28, anti-basin activists also plan to gather in front of the Niort court, where five people arrested in Sainte-Soline are to be tried for "participation in a group formed to prepare violence".

Other mobilizations in support of people arrested during previous demonstrations will take place on January 5 and 6 in La Rochelle and Niort, while a rally will be organized on December 15 in front of the headquarters of the Loire Water Agency. -Brittany on the occasion of a board meeting.

"Moratorium on water storage projects"

Following the mobilization of Sainte-Soline, the collective of opponents had given the government fifteen days to decree a "moratorium on all water storage projects" and put an end to the site.

But it resumed on November 8, while a similar project was validated in neighboring Vienna.

The "basin" of Sainte-Soline is one of the 16 reserves of several hundreds of thousands of m3 which must be created in the Deux-Sèvres.

Developed by a group of 400 farmers with the support of the State, this project aims to make water available for irrigation during the summer, thanks to the pumping of surface water tables in winter.

A first reservoir was put into service in Mauzé-sur-Mignon, where a major event - the "Maraichin Spring" - had already taken place on March 25.