Water Legislation in Aragon

Abstract

The Autonomous Community of Aragon has no major jurisdictional authority in terms of water and associated public works, but it has a clear interest in water issues. One legal example of that is the 2001 Aragon Water Law together with all its subsequent amendments. The Law has led to the creation of a public entity, the Aragon Water Institute, and to a planning instrument, the Principles of Water Policy in Aragon, through which the community tries to participate actively in water policy.

Notes

 1. The concept of a basin as defined by the 2001 Royal Decree that approved the revised text of the Water Law as subsequently modified in 2003.

 2. A concession on water from the Mequinenza and Ribarroja dams was granted to a company for hydroelectric use. As a result, an agreement had to be reached between the company and the government of Aragon in order to make these reserves available.

 3. Article 9 contains references to the compulsory imposition of aqueduct rights, the obligatory constitution of communities of irrigators or central boards of users, as well as to the manner of the expiry of any concessions that are granted.

 4. Such as the 1990 Law that gave the political groupings of the Aragon parliament proportional representation in the water councils of the Júcar and Ebro. The Law was revoked in 1996, since when the Aragon government was able to decide freely on its representation, just as it did before 1990.

 5. This law precedes the 2001 Law on the rights and duties of the counties.

 6. In exceptional circumstances, municipalities are, however, allowed to charge a specific municipal tax to be used only for raising sufficient funds to pay off debts incurred in the construction of projects.

 7. Decree 266/2001 of the Aragon government on the regulatory framework of the Autonomous Community's sanitation norm.

 8. For example, the reference to the ‘historical debt’, which besides is described as enormous. These concepts can be understood in the context of political discourse; in legal terms, they are little if any of direct use.

 9. There are eight representatives of agricultural users, six for industry and two for other uses (tourism, recreation, etc.).

10. The Law is particularly generous by including two representatives of “social organizations whose principal objective is the conservation of the environment, particularly of water and its associated ecosystems”; “social organizations that aim to defend the interests of those affected by regulatory projects”, also with two; and “social organizations that defend the interests of consumers or users”, with one.

11. For example, when they speak of establishing general directives on water policy and the Autonomous Community's water infrastructure within the framework of responsibility for these issues, planning and the environment.