Activists who staged protests against mega-reservoirs in France from Tuesday to Saturday last week have hailed the movement a success and say they will not stop their action. Up to 10,000 people joined the action.
The organisers are calling for a moratorium on all building and planning of mega-reservoir projects around the country.
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More than 3,000 police and gendarmerie had been on alert near Melle (Deux-Sèvres) in west France ahead of the protests, which were organised and supported by more than 120 organisations, associations, trade unions and collectives.
These included activist groups Bassines Non Merci (BNM), Soulèvements de la Terre, Attac, Union syndicale Solidaires, Confédération paysanne, and hydrologists group Scientists in Rebellion.
“It was massive,” said Johanne Rabier, from the Bassines Non Merci collective. “And we were able to achieve our objectives, which were to call for a moratorium….and to get to the root of the problems with the reservoirs, which are being taken over by the farming industry.”
The protests and gathering had been peaceful over most of the week, as activists set up the ‘Village de l'eau’ in Melle. The 10-hectare ‘festival atmosphere’ site had giant marquees, stalls, a ‘mega-canteen’, a bar, camping areas, and a ‘bambinerie’ for children. There were also discussions, ‘round tables’ and training sessions.
The camp was set up with agreement from Melle authorities, after a similar event took place in March 2023. The protesters then used the camp as a base from which to begin their marches and protests nearby.
“We have never been so close to a ‘moratorium’,” said Julien Le Guet, spokesman for Bassines Non Merci. “‘We have sown some very good seeds…there will be a ‘before’ and ‘after’ to [our] Village de l'eau’ [movement],” he said.
Protest clashes
Some protests became more heated on Friday, July 19, and Saturday, July 20.
On Friday, a fire caused by police tear-gas broke out in one field, causing a farmer to lose around 10 hectares of wheat hay.
The farmer said he did not blame the police, despite the damage. “The gendarmerie had no choice but to arrest…the extremist ecologists. [They] had no business being there. It is not up to them to lay down the law. The loss of straw is not a big deal,” he said to BFMTV.
On Saturday, there were clashes between police and activists in La Rochelle.
Nine people were injured and seven arrested, authorities said. Three were summoned to appear before the public prosecutor for alleged trespassing, resisting arrest, and taking part in a banned demonstration. One person was also arrested for allegedly having ‘a view to commit damage’.
On Sunday morning, many activists were beginning to leave the Village de l’eau site, reported AFP, adding that no law enforcement had been required at the village itself.
Authorities and unions had been on high alert because of violence that had broken out at a previous anti-reservoir protest at Sainte-Soline, in March 2023, which left many people severely injured, and one man in a coma.
However, one farmers’ union, the FNSEA, told AFP that it was pleased with the restraint shown by farmers this weekend, to whom it had sent an “appeal for calm”, it said.
The Coordination rurale farmers' union had issued a call to its members to “come and protect the farms”, but this did not happen.
Why the disagreement over the mega-reservoirs?
Farmers argue that the mega-reservoirs are a good solution to water shortages during the summer, and will help to preserve their essential water source during hotter months.
Critics say that rather than improve the state of the water table, the reservoirs will worsen it, exacerbating the existing drought-prone situation.
They also believe that the reservoirs represent an unequal sharing of water at a time of worsening drought, and unfairly prioritising water for farmers at the expense of the rest of the population.
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Scientific studies
Some studies, including the most recent IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (the Sixth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), has concluded that the ‘mega-reservoir solution’ is insufficient and ineffective in the face of climate change.
Ultimately, the reservoirs are an effective solution if the water table is able to replenish itself sufficiently during the winter. But in the event of worsening drought in the long-term, their usefulness diminishes.
With global warming, droughts are set to become increasingly intense, and “the water lost from artificial reservoirs through evaporation could be substantial”,said Gonéri Le Cozannet, co-author of the IPCC's ‘adaptation’ chapter, when contacted by HuffPost.
For example, during the drought of the winter of 2022-2023 in France, the water table was relatively empty even in the colder months, meaning that the reservoirs could not stock up water for the summer.
As temperatures rise, artificial water storage will be insufficient, said Mr Le Cozannet.
Writing on X (Twitter), he said: “With around 3°C of global warming, even a very large number of coherent adaptation measures can no longer guarantee that water shortages will be avoided. Particularly in southern Europe.”
Hydroclimatologist and CNRS researcher Florence Habets has dubbed the mega-reservoir model a “maladaptation” to climate change.
Climate change and drought
Proponents of mega-reservoirs say that the model represents an attempt at “diversified agriculture”, and that abandoning them would actually favour larger farms with more water-hungry crops such as wheat, rapeseed, and sunflower.
Defenders of the project also cite a report by the Bureau de recherches géologiques et minières (BRGM), which has stated that the project in Deux-Sèvres could increase the flow of rivers by ‘5% to 6%’ in summer, versus just a 1% drop in winter (compared to 2010-11).
However, the BRGM has said that its report did not take into account the effect of climate change or the risk of recurring droughts.
“If we build these reservoirs, we still have to be able to fill them,” said BRGM president Michèle Rousseau at a Senate hearing in March 2023.
“We have to realise that [reservoirs] will only be effective during severe droughts if the water is actually available,” said Ms Habet from the CNRS.
The IPCC scientists have also suggested other ways to reduce the dependency on water intensive crops and water, including “plant-based diets [and] diversified farming systems”, said Mr Le Cozannet.
“If we want to effectively finance adaptation to climate change, these are the practices towards which funding should be directed,” he said.
Funding should go towards helping to protect “natural freshwater reservoirs, such as rivers and underground aquifers [as these are] the only reservoirs that can store water for a long time and with good quality”, said Ms Habets with Magali Reghezza, geographer and member of the French High Council for Climate Change (HCC).
