"Stop megabasins": Once again, replacement reservoirs are in the French news. On Tuesday, July 16, opponents of these structures set up a "village for the defense of water" in the western French commune of Melle. The event is due to culminate in two days of action on July 19 and 20. During the legislative elections campaign, the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) alliance pledged that it would implement a moratorium on these artificial reservoirs as soon as it came to power.
In April, in response to heated farmers' protests, Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau promised instead to build around a hundred of them, operational by the end of the year. At the same time, the government launched the creation of an agricultural water fund of €20 million by 2024 and reaching €30 million by 2025. It also announced the appointment of an inter-ministerial delegate for agricultural water management for a period of three years. Martin Gutton, director of the Loire-Bretagne water agency, was appointed at the last cabinet meeting of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal's government on July 16.
What's the status of the water storage rush that some are predicting, spurred by the clear effects of climate change? The Explore 2 prospective study, published on June 28 by the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE), predicts a high probability of drier and longer summers in mainland France and wetter winters in the north and east of the country. Drawing on the resource when water is most abundant, in winter, and storing it for use in summer, when it's most scarce, seems to make "good sense," as the promoters of replacement reservoirs keep saying.
The concept is, however, reductive. For a start, the scientists behind Explore 2 emphasize the major uncertainties surrounding weather conditions between now and the end of the century, and their great variability from one year to the next. It is impossible to predict how often the famous "megabasins" – a term used to describe structures of several hectares in size that are dug out, dammed up and filled, for the most part, by pumping groundwater – will be filled.
In addition, hydraulic storage divides the agricultural production sector, which consumes 62% of the water available in France. Despite fears of likely shortages, irrigated areas have expanded by 23% from 2010 to 2020. But the basins "freeze access to water in a territory," deplored the Confédération Paysanne, a farmers' union, in an open letter dated July 15. Not everyone will be connected, far from it. However, new players – market gardeners and arboriculturists, among others – should also be able to benefit from a redistribution of volumes. The Confédération Paysanne denounced the emergence of "speculation in water rights, particularly in the transfer" of land. It deplored the "lack of transparency" in these matters and called for equitable sharing, including with other players in the area.
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