The management of water resources has been the cause of dozens of disputes between neighbors. The dry lands also want to irrigate and the big cities claim to have a guaranteed supply
The history of water transfers in Spain is as old as the roman aqueducts and the later networks of ditches built by the Arabs. These engineering works (more or less durable, more or less expensive) did not always generate territorial disputes, management disputes or wars between neighbors. In most cases, the transportation of the resource, from the original rivers or lakes to the most needy places, has been assumed as a commercial exchange with benefits for both parties involved: some collect taxes, others can drink or irrigate the land.
The first major transfer that triggered a ‘water war’ in Spain was the one that the Council of Elche wanted to undertake in 1420, when it asked several neighboring cities for authorization so that the surveyors from Elche could enter to work in its territory and trace a channel that would lead part of the waters of the Júcar river to the basin of the thirsty Vinalopó. One hundred years later, in 1528, Elche wanted more and reconsidered the project to capture not only the waters of the Júcar, but also the springs and reservoirs of Villena. There a dispute broke out that was not closed until a century later, after the municipalities of Sax and Villena were inflexible and did not give their arm to twist.
Spain provided its first water law in 1879, but soon it was outdated and surpassed by the real needs. It was at the beginning of the 20th century, when the general plan of irrigation canals and swamps created the current hydrographic confederations, trying to respond to the agrarian crisis that was being suffered, when the first serious problems for the control of water: the cultivation areas were expanding and everyone wanted to irrigate.
There are currently in Spain 16 large water transfers, projects that transfer water from one hydrographic basin to another. The oldest is the one that carries water from the Alzania (a sub-tributary of the Ebro that runs through Navarra) to Oria, in Guipúzcoa, which was built in 1927 for hydroelectric purposes and ended up being for consumption. The last one that entered service is
Related news
the one who wears waters of the river Tagus to the headwaters of the Guadianain Ciudad Real, through 92 kilometers of pipes, with a maximum volume of 50 cubic hectometres per second.
The great controversies, however, have focused on two projects that sought to bring water to the Mediterranean coast from inland basins such as the Tagus or the Ebro.
Tajo-Segura, a transfer with reverse gear
A year ago, when the National Water Council gave its support to the project presented by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition to cut the flow of the Tajo-Segura transfer unleashed a new ‘water war’ between autonomies, and also with the central government. The decision raised in arms the powerful agri-food sector of Alicante, Murcia and Almería, which for 42 years has received a volume of water which has given enormous prosperity to the area. The ministry navigates between two waters, pressured by Castilla-La Mancha (determined to close the transfer) and by Murcia, Almería and the Valencian Community, who defend its continuity and reject desalination as the only solution.
The origin of the measure lies in the fact that in recent years some 100,000 hectares of irrigated land by dint of removing water from highly pressured aquifers. For this reason, this community claims for itself water from the transfer (which dates back to 1979), as one of the socialist barons, the regional president Emiliano Garcia-Page, who has found an ally in the Vice President of the Government, Teresa Ribera. The Castilian-La Mancha president declared: “If the water belongs to everyone, it must also belong to the places through which the water passes.” He has also stated that the river is currently “a piece of crap” due to its poor condition. The minister, together with Díaz-Page, defends also increasing the ecological flows of the Tagus, which will reduce the water reserves to transfer. FRANCISCO JOSE BENITO / Alicante
Transfer of the Ebro, a fire now lethargic
It has been more than 20 years since the gigantic demonstration that gathered in Madrid to more than a quarter of a million people and, in Aragon, the Ebro transfer continues to be somewhat untouchable. Last February, the Cortes voted a text in which are opposed “today and always” to any type of transfer of the river waters. The controversy has been recurring for years, since in 2001 the government approved the National Hydrological Plan, which opened the doors to the possibility that the waters of the largest river in the peninsula were transferred to other basins. At this time, the Ebro already supports up to six ‘punctures’ at different points in its course.
The measure, rejected by territorial administrations (Catalans, Aragonese, La Rioja, Cantabrians), by irrigators and farmers, by businessmen, has given rise to historic demonstrations, authentic media fires. The last time the matter was activated was due to the drought that affected Catalonia between 2007 and 2008, in which the Generalitat of the time came to study the possibility of transferring water from the Segre river (the main tributary of the Ebro) to the Barcelona area. IGNACIO MARTIN / Zaragoza