Mega-ponds are impoundments that are causing debate in the agricultural community. Members of the Confédération paysanne demonstrated on Thursday February 17 to denounce them on the occasion of the summons to the gendarmerie of Salins-les-Bains of their national spokesperson. Rallies were also planned in Niort (Deux-Sèvres) and Rodez (Aveyron).
About fifteen activists from the agricultural union Confédération paysanne gathered in Salins-les-Bains to support one of their own, Thursday, February 17. Indeed, Nicolas Girod, the union’s national spokesperson, was interviewed by the city’s gendarmerie for an action carried out in November 2021.
On that date, Nicolas Girod had participated in a demonstration in Deux-Sèvres against the creation of sixteen mega-basins in the surrounding area. During this regrouping, a mega-basin already built in the bordering town of Cramchaban (Charente Maritime) had been degraded by the militants. The pump had been disconnected and the tarps covering the bowl removed, according to France Blue.
The mega-basins are holes in the ground of several meters covered with a layer of plastic whose purpose is to retain water in winter to irrigate farmers’ fields in summer. But the origin of the water raises questions.
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Thursday, February 17, Nicolas Girod presented himself to the gendarmerie with the pump of the mega-basin of Cramchaban in his hands. The aim is to deny, according to the union, the remarks of the Minister of Agriculture, Julien Denormandie, who had declared that the mega-basins were only supplied by “the torrential rains that occur in the middle of winter”. “The pump is proof that groundwater and waterways are used to fill the basins”, says Patrick Abraham, secretary general of the Confédération paysanne in the Jura. As a result, for them, it risks drying out the surrounding plots.
The defenders of the mega-basins, they believe that the pumped water corresponds only to the surpluses of the water tables which normally overflow in the neighboring waterways.
The origin of the water is not the only criticism leveled at mega-ponds by environmental activists. According to Patrick Abraham, these projects are also the symbol of “the grabbing of a common good, water, for the private production of cereal crops that raise questions”. However, they are largely financed by public funds. At last, “mega-basins do not respond to climate issues”says our interlocutor.
Demonstrations of the Peasant Confederation were also planned in front of the prefectures of Deux-Sèvres (Niort) and Aveyron (Rodez).
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