Protest convoy against government irrigation scheme reaches Paris after 8 day march

RFI
Sun, 27 August 2023 

© BassinesNonMerci

The protest convoy, which arrived in Paris on Saturday, brought together nearly a thousand people on the Champ de Mars in a good-natured atmosphere to the sound of songs denouncing "bassines" – the controversial government project to create massive open-air reservoirs for agricultural irrigation.

Hundreds of demonstrators chanted "Fence by fence, cover by cover, we'll destroy all the reservoirs" when they arrived in the French capital on Saturday, after setting off on bicycles and tractors over a week ago from Nouvelle-Aquitaine in western France.

Before reaching Paris, the slow convoy of protesters pitched camp in Orléans on Thursday, where they spent three days in front of the headquarters of the Loire-Bretagne Water Agency – one of the main contractors tasked with rolling out the government's irrigation scheme.

The aim of the so-called "mega-basins" is to store water drawn up from the water table in winter into the open air reservoirs, so it can be used to irrigate crops in when rainfall is scarce or during periods of drought.

Supporters of the government-sponsored plan see this as a prerequisite for the survival of farms in the face of the threat of recurring droughts.

On their way to Paris, a delegation representing the anti-irrigation protesters had been received for more than five hours on Wednesday by Sophie Brocas – the prefect of the Centre-Val de Loire region and water project coordinator – to call for an moratorium on current water storage proposals, but to no avail.