French local authorities have decided to suspend work on a controversial dam after the death last week of an activist protesting against the project.
The executive council in charge of the project in the south-western Tarn region decided to freeze work on the dam but did not definitively scrap it. It was impossible in the light of the tragedy to continue any work at the site of the Sivens dam project, said Thierry Carcenac, head of the region’s executive council. “What happened was terrible and should never happen again,” he added.
Remi Fraisse, 21, died in the early hours of Sunday during violent clashes between security forces and protesters against the project. It was the first death during a protest in mainland France since 1986.Tree-clearing for the dam at Sivens, about 30 miles from Toulouse, began last month as part of a project that has been planned for more than 20 years.
On Monday, an independent experts’ report gave succour to the environmental campaigners by pointing out that the proposed dam on the Tescou river was too large for the purposes of irrigating about 20 farms, and that ecological concerns had been neglected. This report from the Guardian
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