Poitiers court orders dismantling of four water reservoirs in Charente-Maritime within three years
A French administrative court has given an irrigators' association three years to dismantle four water storage reservoirs in Charente-Maritime, upholding a challenge by environmentalists who had fought the structures for over a decade.
The ruling
On 23 July 2026, the administrative tribunal of Poitiers ordered the Association syndicale autorisée d'irrigation (ASAI) des Roches to remove four of five contested water storage reservoirs, known locally as "bassines" or "mégabassines". The structures, located in the communes of Cram-Chaban, La Laigne and La Grève-sur-Mignon, must be dismantled and the land restored within three years. The court followed the conclusions of the public rapporteur, giving partial satisfaction to the environmental association Nature Environnement 17 (NE17), which had challenged the legality of the reservoirs.
There is a lack of legal basis for the fifth reservoir, the judgment will be postponed.
The reservoirs had been used to irrigate 850 hectares of farmland. The tribunal had already annulled prefectoral authorisations for the works in 2009 and 2018. Subsequent formal notices in 2018 and 2023 demanded that the ASAI regularise the administrative situation and halt illegal groundwater withdrawals.
A long legal trail
- Administrative court annuls initial prefectoral authorisation for the reservoirs.
- Court again annuls a subsequent authorisation; prefect issues formal notice to ASAI des Roches.
- Prefect issues a second formal notice for illegal water withdrawals and administrative irregularities.
- La Rochelle criminal court fines nine irrigators over €1 million for unauthorised water use.
- Poitiers administrative tribunal orders dismantling of four reservoirs within three years.
The 23 July decision is the latest chapter in a dispute stretching back more than fifteen years. In July 2025, the criminal court of La Rochelle convicted nine members of the ASAI des Roches for unauthorised water use, imposing fines totalling over one million euros. That ruling is also under appeal. The repeated annulments and formal notices had not led to the removal of the reservoirs, prompting NE17 to seek a judicial order for dismantling.
## Reactions Nature Environnement 17 welcomed the judgment as a landmark for environmental protection.
In this period when environmental rollbacks are piling up, the ruling of the Poitiers administrative tribunal constitutes an important victory for the protection of water, wetlands and the rule of law.
The ASAI des Roches announced it would appeal, arguing that the decision is out of step with national priorities on water supply security and food sovereignty. The irrigators pointed to the recently adopted agricultural emergency law, which sets a target of doubling water storage capacity by 2035.
Clash with new legislation
The court's order was notified to the Minister of Ecological Transition, underlining its political sensitivity. The agricultural emergency law, passed just weeks before the ruling, explicitly encourages the construction of substitution reserves to store water for summer use. The dismantling order therefore runs counter to the government's stated direction, creating tension between judicial enforcement of environmental law and legislative ambitions to expand irrigation infrastructure.
