Agricultural irrigation: in Deux-Sèvres, anti-basins ready to resist

“This is the beginning of the disaster, we are here to say no”, insists behind a megaphone Julien Le Guet, one of the spokespersons of the Bassines Non Merci (BNM) collective. A hundred people demonstrated this Friday, February 12 in Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon (Deux-Sèvres), on the edge of a field treated with glyphosate where a substitute water reserve must be erected for the irrigation of intensive crops. .

Fifteen other basins fed by groundwater are to be built on the Sèvre Niortaise and the Mignon, in Deux-Sèvres, Vienne and Charente-Maritime, at an estimated cost of nearly 60 million euros, 70% from of public funds. The first diggers – preventive archaeological excavations – were given on Monday. “The Rubicon has been crossed,” said BNM, which immediately called on opponents to denounce this “forced passage”.

Block backhoes

“All the appeals before the administrative courts have not been judged,” recalls Julien Le Guet. And the prefect had undertaken not to start the work before spring. “The European deputy EELV Benoît Biteau castigates, him,” a provocation “. “They praise virtuous agricultural practices, but start the work with glyphosate! “

Mayor of Bourdet, Clément Cohen adopted in December 2020 a motion calling for the suspension of this project, like twenty other municipalities in the sector. “The largest basin will be less than 500 meters from our first homes. Agriculture must be transformed before these basins are authorized and public money is injected into them, ”said the elected official. Opponents say they are ready to “block the diggers” as long as all avenues of appeal are not exhausted.