中欧社会论坛 - China Europa Forum

Authors: Manuel Ramón LLamas

Date: 19 avril 2007

Published by Europèan Academies of Sciences Advisory Council (EASAC)

1. INTRODUCTION

Spain is globally the most arid country in the European Union, especially in the center and eastern half. Therefore, it is logic that the problems in relation to water use and management are relevant. Spain is a classical case of the recent and pervasive phenomenon of the intensive groundwater use silent revolution (Fornés et al. 2005; Llamas and Martinez-Santos, 2005). Groundwater use in Spain has increased dramatically over the last several decades, with the total volume pumped growing from 2,000 Mm3/year in 1960 to more than 6,500 Mm3/year in 2000. These developments were for the most part the result of the initiative of thousands of individual users and small municipalities, with scarce public planning or oversight. Today, groundwater provides between 15-20% of all water used in the country, although it may approach 100% in some areas and islands.

The intensive development of groundwater resources has brought about significant social and economic benefits, but their unplanned nature has also resulted in negative environmental, legal and socioeconomic consequences. This situation is not exclusive of Spain. With different hues it is similar in most arid and semiarid countries, as emphasized in the Alicante Declaration approved at the International Symposium on Groundwater Sustainability (Ragone et al. 2007). In order to deal with these problems in Spain, the 1985 Water Act radically transformed the institutional context for the management of groundwater resources in Spain. Most significantly, it publicized groundwater ownership, allowing existing users to remain in the private property regime if they so wished, but requiring administrative permits for any new uses. It also regulated the concept of aquifer overexploitation, giving water authorities broad powers to regulate groundwater use in aquifers that were declared overexploited. While this declaration should be accompanied by strict regulatory measures, they have most often not been successfully implemented, and a situation of chaos still persists in many of these aquifers.

Groundwater use in Spain has significant socioeconomic importance, both as a factor of production in agriculture and industry, and as a source of drinking water for over 12 million people (almost one third of the total population). Existing data on groundwater use and its associated economic value points to the higher productivity of groundwater irrigation compared with irrigation using surface water. Given the importance of irrigation as a water user, and in the context of increased competition for limited water resources, recent efforts toimprove the quality of data on groundwater use and its economic importance in the context of the Water Framework Directive requirements, are crucial to inform water policy decisions in the future.

This paper presents an overview of the situation of intensive groundwater use in Spain, with an emphasis on economic and institutional aspects. After a review of available data on groundwater use and a brief discussion of some regions where groundwater is used intensively, we look at the economic parameters associated with this use, focusing on irrigation. We then go on to evaluate the institutional framework for the management of groundwater resources that has evolved from the 1985 Water Code, its 1999 and 2003 reforms, and the current reform proposals.

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