A “gigabassines” project mobilizes in Puy-de-Dôme

At the heart of the debate: the construction of two water reserves, one of 14 hectares, the other of 18 hectares, intended to irrigate 800 hectares with 36 agricultural farms in the Limagne plain, where Limagrain, 4th is located global seed company.

This represents "the equivalent of 500 Olympic pools" and "that's why we no longer talk about mega pools but gigabasins", explains to AFP Isabelle, member of Extinction Rebellion and spokesperson for the collective organizing the march of protest.

These projects have not yet been the subject of a formal request for authorization, but its opponents wish to obtain a moratorium. The objective is to “act before the work begins”, explains Maud, from the Bassines non merci 63 collective.

More than a year after the mobilization against the megabasins of Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres) which led to violent clashes with the police, this day is intended to be “family friendly”. The Puy-de-Dôme prefecture, however, announced reinforced security measures on Wednesday, including additional police officers, in order to limit the risks of “disturbing public order”.

The Bassines non merci 63 collective, Extinction Rebellion, the Faucheur.ses volunteers, the Peasant Confederation and the Earth Uprisings are expecting “a few thousand” participants. The prefecture between 2 and 3.000.

The national secretary of Ecologists Marine Tondelier announced her presence. “Megabasins constitute a privatization of our most precious common good, by a minority. Building megabasins is ignoring the basic problem: the scarcity of water,” she noted in a press release.

LFI deputies, including Mathilde Panot, are also expected on site.

“Public money”

In the opponents' camp, there are murmurs that "it is Limagrain which is pushing this project in the interest of securing its production of seed corn intended for export, all financed 70% by public money".

“This project is not supported by Limagrain” which, however, “supports” it to “develop the means of production and promote the production of (its) members”, adds a spokesperson for this cooperative bringing together 1.300 farmers.

According to him, the reservoirs would be filled by sampling in Allier between November 1 and March 31, respecting the authorized flow rate of 45,7 m3/second and would allow the "storage of 2,3 million m3 of water in winter period, or 0.12% of the volume" of the Loire tributary.

But opponents fear that these limits will then be called into question by derogation.

“All this is regulatory and supervised by the State,” retorts Philippe Planche, one of the 36 operators carrying out the project. This dairy cow breeder grows cereals for his animals and sells the surplus, without irrigating. Part of its production is contracted with Limagrain.

“My objective is both to secure the feed for my cows and to limit my corn area to replace it with specialized crops like garlic,” he explains to AFP.

"The idea is not to do business but to preserve an agricultural model: we are talking about family farms on average of 60-70 hectares. Without these deductions, (...) the risk is to have farms which are 150 or even 200 hectares with less diversification", estimates the farmer, regretting that the opponents "refuse dialogue".

Water withdrawals intended for irrigation more than doubled between 2010 and 2020 in France, reaching 3,42 billion m3 in 2020, according to a report from the regional chamber of the Court of Auditors of Nouvelle-Aquitaine published in July 2023.

According to this report, "reducing withdrawals appears to be the only solution to resolve the fundamental problem of imbalance" between water resources and consumption. Its authors recommend in particular "conditioning public financing of infrastructures for securing agricultural irrigation to commitments made by the beneficiaries, in particular to reduce consumption".