AGUA RÍOS Y PUEBLOS

Text: Dani Boix Masafret, Albert Ruhí Vidal y Sergi Solá.

The reservoirs of the middle river stretch and due to the excessive water transfer result in a thorough and severe change along the course of the river. It turns into two complete different rivers with two different problems: upstream because of the reservoirs and the pollution and downstream due to the lack in water flow.

The current intensive livestock farming performed in the local area of Osona entails a disproportionate water consumption and generates a huge amount of manure that the farming soil is not able to absorb. In a few years time the rural culture has been substituted by labour force exploitation and the breeding cycle of pigs has been reduced to the half by means of feeding them with synthetic compound feed. The traditional organic manure is no longer produced and instead of it farm slurry is made, which pollutes the underground aquifers. Even if the conversion manufacture processes takes place, the recovery of these underground aquifers will take decades.

The water transfer started in the sixties but it has been in the last decade when the great abuses have taken place. From1996 till 2007 the 75% of the volume of flow of the river has been transferred even ignoring the legislation in force and the commitments of the administration. This situation has resulted in a severe economical social and ecological impact. In fact for the last four years, those days in which the failure in keeping the minimum volume of flow established in the Water Flow Maintenance Plan for the river Ter in Girona have been more than those in which it has been fulfilled.

Text: Albert Recio. Professor of Economics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Photo: Pipa Álvarez, Enric Font. Miguel López, Josep Massip and Rubén Pérez

This struggle was developed by the neighborhood movement in several neighborhoods in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. In its origins, he rose up against abusive tax increases in the water bill, some of which were not related to the water cycle.

In addition to the multiple demonstrations and protests, it emphasized the refusal to pay the part corresponding to those taxes on water bills.

The reflection of the movement itself during the conflict resulted in a proposed change in the tariff model aimed at ensuring an affordable cost for basic consumption and penalizing excessive consumption.
He also developed a culture of saving. At the moment, Barcelona is a city with lower water consumption than other large cities (110 liters per person per day).

The fight ended in a partial victory. The rates corresponding to the part of the service that is not privatized were consistent with civic demands (proof is split, weighting inhabitants per home), but the party itself depended AGBAR private enterprise was not touched.

Text: Ebro River Defense Committee .Plataforma en Defensa de l’Ebre

The Spanish National Hidrological Plan (NHP) approved in the year 2000 had planned a water transfer of up to 1080 Hm3 from the river Ebro per year to the Mediterranean coast ( to the north of Spain up to Barcelona and to the south up to Almería) so as to cope with the growing water demands of the intensive irrigated land and the construction and real-estate development projects in the whole area as well. The environmental, economical and social impact arising from this water transfer led to a strong citizen opposition with the support of the scientific community, particularly in the Terres de l’ Ebre and the Aragonian Pyrenees -being the most affected areas.

This strong citizen opposition resulted in the derogation of the huge water transfer project in 2004, although more than 800 hydraulic infrastructures projects and other works comprised in the annex II of the NHP were not pulled out. Many of those projects are still nurturing non-sustainable expectations of new irrigation plans similar to the NHP, specifically in the river Ebro watershed – more than 300.000 hectares- which would require twice the volume of the flow of the river planned in the derogated water transfer of the Ebro.

Thus, despite the fact that the derogation of the huge water transfers was a success, we consider that the New Water Culture is not being enforced and the old water culture of unsustainable consumption is still prevailing, despite the water being a finite resource.