2024-03-23 13:00:03
A water reserve for agricultural irrigation under construction, in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres), April 11, 2023. DAMIEN MEYER/AFP
In one year, the earth wall of Sainte-Soline, which had been besieged on the afternoon of March 25, 2023 by a coalition of opponents of megabasins and had been the scene of violent clashes with the police, had time to green up. The sky is no longer obscured by tear gas and smoke from Molotov cocktails, but the fences preventing access are still in place. More than mortar fire, the main obstacle to the construction of the immense water reservoir for agricultural use was… the rain.
“The heavy rainfall in winter prevented the execution of the construction site schedulea explained Charles Robert, director of the Deux-Sèvres Water Cooperative Society (Coop 79), during a press conference on Friday March 22. We were able to organize ourselves so that future connections were not harmed. To respect the avifauna of the plains, we will stop the work at the end of March and resume it in September. »
The substitution reserve could be filled, “if the indicators allow”from November or December, in order to be operational for the 2025 irrigation campaign. The schedule was confirmed during the annual general meeting of Coop de l’eau 79, Wednesday March 20. “We had interesting, necessary substantive debates”, remarks the president, Thierry Boudaud. Nothing, in any case, which calls into question the project of sixteen basins on the Sèvre Niortaise and the Mignon, distributed in three departments (Deux-Sèvres, Charente-Maritime and Vienne). “A tool for adaptation to climate changehe argues, for agriculture focused on its territory. »
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As the anniversary of the clash around Sainte-Soline approaches, the cooperative is determined to continue its work. “We plan and move forward”assures Mr. Boudaud, tested by the ” harassment “ and the “psychological pressure” of which he himself was the target. “Experience has shown us that we must be vigilant”warns the irrigating farmer, while demonstrations by opponents are announced in the coming days in Melle (Deux-Sèvres) and throughout France. “We will see if the clear message sent by the Niort court on January 17, 2024 [la condamnation de neuf militants antibassines] happened. »
“Doing my job”
Ludovic Vassaux, a farmer in Epannes (Deux-Sèvres), had suffered damage to his farm during a previous “market spring” mobilization in 2022. “Is it okay to have to ask my 17-year-old daughter if she is being pressured on social media? »asks the breeder-cultivator, who sows non-GMO soya, chickpeas, alfalfa and even barley, but not corn. “It’s been three years since we’ve stopped growing corn in the plains!he gets annoyed. I like the Marais Poitevin, I don’t want to live in Beauce. But I need this water to do my job, to keep my vegetable cows and to be organic, which is complicated. There are sixty million environmentalists as citizens, but there aren’t many consumers buying our products right now…”
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