Who Manages Spain's Water Resources? The Political and Administrative Division of Water Management

Abstract

At the beginning of the 20th century, Spain introduced a pioneering system of water management by river basins, which was later endorsed by the EU Water Framework Directive. Recently, for a variety of political and administrative reasons, a number of fierce territorial disputes and debates have arisen that challenge the validity of this system. Changes have also taken place in the way water is managed, with a shift towards a more environmentally friendly approach. It is recommended that the river basin remain the basic territorial unit for any water management system, although this will require a National Water Agreement.

Notes

 1. The concept of integrated management of water resources was embraced by many international institutions in the 1980s and 1990s, although it actually dates back to the mid-20th century when it was used by the United Nations (Biswas, 2004).

 2. The river basin authorities could be created by the Government itself or at the request of associations representing 70% of the agricultural and industrial wealth deriving from the use of running water. They were given as much independence as possible, even in aspects such as the financing of public works, although always within the confines of government economic policy.

 3. Respect for the founding principles and in particular those referring to democratic participation. It is worth noting that the first assembly of the Ebro river basin authority had 121 members, 113 of whom were elected.

 4. Spain has about 1,200 reservoirs, which means that its regulation volume varies between 37% and 47% of its natural resources. These infrastructures have put Spain in a similar situation to the rest of Europe in terms of the availability of water (Ministry of Environment & Rural & Marine Affairs, 2000).

 5. The Water Act of 1985 declared all surface waters and renewable groundwater to be public, and as state-owned assets, their allocation and use is subject to a concession granted by the state. Private individuals can only gain the right to use water, not to own it, except for those cases of rights acquired under previous legislation, which the Water Act respects. Nevertheless, this assertion of public ownership was seriously distorted and diluted by the criteria set out in the Temporary Provisions of the act, such that the present situation is one in which private (exploited before 1 January 1986) and public (exploited after 1 January 1986) groundwater coexist.

 6. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 organized the country into 17 regions known as autonomous communities, each of which has a Statute of Autonomy as its basic institutional law. The statute defines the rights and duties of the citizens of the particular region, its political institutions, its powers, its relationship with the central government and its means of finance.

 7. Planning in Spain, in the sense of achieving a rational use of water, dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. Some of the most important plans include the Gasset Plan of 1902, which was aimed at building water infrastructures so as to expand the amount of irrigated land, the Large Irrigation Projects Act of 1911, and the Water Engineering Works Plan of 1933.

 8. In 1998 Spain and Portugal signed the Convention on Co-operation for the Protection and Sustainable Use of the Waters in the Spanish-Portuguese River Basins, better known as the Albufeira Convention. This applies to the basins of the Miño, Limia, Duero, Tajo and Guadiana rivers which cover 41% of the total area of Spain and 62% of Portugal.

 9. In fact the level of recovery of the costs involved in the provision of water services as a whole in Spain ranges between 65% and 96%, depending on the particular service, users and river basin (Ministry of Environment & Rural & Marine Affairs, 2007).

10. Art. 129 of Law 62/2003 of 30 December 2003 (BOE, 2003) on administrative/tax measures and measures dealing with social order.

11. The reforms to the Statutes of Autonomy of Valencia, Cataluña, Andalucía, Balearic Islands, Castilla-León and Extremadura have already been passed. That of Castilla-La Mancha is currently in process.

12. On 16 March 2011 the Constitutional High Court ruled Article 51 of the Statutes of the Autonomous Region of Andalucia, which conferred exclusive responsibility upon the Andalucian Regional Government to manage the waters flowing through the Guadalquivir river basin in Andalucia, to be unconstitutional. The court repeated its ruling of 1998 that the legitimate interests represented by the autonomous regions as far as water is concerned must be channelled through the existing participatory governmental bodies and managerial bodies set up to deal with river basin affairs.

13. The Constitutional High Court also ruled to the same effect on the exclusive responsibilities claimed by the region of Castilla-León over the waters of the Duero river basin in its territory.