Revision as of 13:47, 15 May 2014

Summary

The Generalidad of Catalonia is one of the 17 autonomous communities of Spain, with a strong cultural and political regional identity, born through history and strengthened by economic factors. The Ebro River Basin is one of the major basins in Spain, covering 85.362 km² of the territory and crossing several autonomous communities in Spain (Cantabria, Castilla-y-León, Rioja, Navarre, and Aragon) as well as a few hundred km² in Andorra and France before it flows finally into the Mediterranean Sea in Catalonia. Like other large rivers in Spain, the Ebro faces huge seasonal and annual variations, leaving hydroelectricity, agriculture and aquaculture and domestic users with a high degree of uncertainty. The flow in Tortosa, the last city before the Delta can vary from 32 hm³ to 24000 hm³ . To limit those effects, the Franco administration and later the Spanish Governments have decided to build several dams on the Ebro River, as well as canals and reservoirs to irrigate the dryer regions. It resulting in a decrease in quantity and quality of water flowing to the Ebro Delta, where “apart from problems with quantity, the river also suffers from quality questions due to industrial waste, agricultural run-offs, and salinization” (PDE, 2014) to the detriment of one of the ecologically richest wetlands in Europe, its economic activities and local livelihood. In parallel, the intensive real estate and tourism sector in Catalonia, especially along the Costa Brava becomes more and more water-consuming, in zones that are not naturally receiving water from the Ebro.

The conflict that came to a peak during the 2008 drought in Catalonia basically stands around water allocation and competition between environmental, energy, agriculture, domestic and industrial needs. Unlike other cases, the stakeholders involved are not only the river basin users, but also water users from all over Catalonia, and especially the tourism and industrial sector in the province of Barcelona (not connected to the Ebro), as well as agriculture users from all over Spain. In addition, those water issues take place in a highly debated political context of centralization versus self-determination for the Generalitat of Catalonia as well as the economic crisis in Europe. Although the innovative European Framework Directive for Water was the driver for institutions and processes to be developed to improve water protection and management from 2000, the Ebro Hydrologic Confederation (CHE) and the Hydraulic Plan for the Ebro (PHE) did not prevent the conflict to be on-going. Indeed, the last PHE for the 2015-2021 period recently reactivated the conflict. Voted in February 2014 by the Central Government and expected to be implemented between 2015 and 2021, the PHE was rejected by the Catalan Parliament and opposed by environmental organizations. The new plan includes 30 new reservoirs and an extension of 40 000 hectares of irrigated lands, implying an increase of water use estimated to 10.000 hm³ per year. The plan also increases the quantity of water flow for environmental needs to the delta to 3300 hm³ per year, very far from the 7.000 to 12.000 hm³ need estimated by the Catalan water agency in order to restore the current ecologic situation in the delta.

After assessing the stakeholders involved and timeline of events related to the Ebro water management, environmental issues and self-determination context in Catalonia, this case study will zoom on the two open crisis mentioned of 2008 and 2014 to illustrate the complexity of the situation. Although some agreements were reached bilaterally during the different phases of the conflict, no consensus able to satisfy all the parties has been built until today and the case study rises two main questions. One major question challenges the gap between consultation and consensus-building: if a multi-stakeholder approach as required by the European Directive can enable sustainable management of the resource, it is not enough by definition, and the quality of the outcome depends on how the approach is conducted. The second reflection questions the interconnection between water management and internal political conflicts: if the two issues cannot be addressed separately, the process for building consensus around water should rather include the interests of the politically-driven parties. Those two questions will be addressed further with other analysis of the Water Diplomacy Framework applied to the Ebro and Catalan case in the last part of this paper.

Natural, Historic, Economic, Regional, and Political Framework

Governmental, Political, and Legal Context

Spain has been managing its water since thousands of years, and has included a repartition of responsibilities and rights since the 20th century, covering 3 levels:

• At the national level: Spanish Government has prerogatives for planning, inter-regional infrastructures, coordination with regional authorities, and protection of the public good. The State is therefore responsible for issuing the National Hydrologic Plan (PHN). It receives advice from the State Advisory Committee and delegates the implementation to the 9 basin based agencies. The Parliament votes the PHN.
• At the basin level agencies: the Hydrologic Confederation of the Ebro (CHE), under the supervision of the Spain Government, is in charge of planning and managing the resource at the Basin level. It is composed of an advisory committee and a managing committee, with representatives of users, dams and other infrastructures owners and other stakeholders. The CHE also ensure scientific audits, predictions and information and is in charge of the consultation process around the Ebro River Basin Plans.
• At the regional level, the autonomous regional authorities have prerogatives on rivers that belong to their only territory. Local municipalities manage the local grids and privatize this task more and more in Spain, especially in big cities. Both authorities are members of the advisory committees at the national and basin levels.

This organization and the general demand-oriented water policy are based on the 1985 law on water, which was modified in 1999 to bring more attention to environmental issues. In 2007, a decree for droughts were signed and implemented, which defines thresholds to constrain the different uses, whit the following hierarchy: human consumption, industry, agriculture, watering and finally environment. The European Commission charged Spain in 2005 for not completing the European Framework Directive on Water, both in terms of defining the rights and obligations of National government vs regional governments and in term of the economic mechanisms regarding individual water rights included in the Directive.

The first Ebro River Basin Plan designed under the European Framework Directive on Water was actually implemented between 2009 and 2015. The elaboration of the Ebro plan includes the evaluation of a baseline and definition of objectives for the next 5 years, as well as definition of criteria to assess the achievements. Several working groups were created for the preparation of the 2015-2021 plan on the following topics: ecological state, chemical state, underground volumes, measurement program, agriculture, floods, data dissemination and information and economic aspects. Representatives from all sectors seat in those working groups to assess the past improvement and propose future objectives. The development then follows a public consultation process including preparation of thematic issues to be covered, hearing sessions from stakeholders from all sectors (comments were sent by a dozen of organizations in the 2013-2014 process), public consultation during 6 months on the basis on the initial documents. Then a strategic document is published, the EPTI (Provisional Schema of Important Topics), which is open for a second cycle of public consultation. After being approved by the central government and the regional governments concerned, the plan is presented to the European Commission (which should take place in June 2014 for the 2015-2021 plan).

The political context around the question of self-determination influences strongly the technical process of planning water management on the Ebro River. Not only the Catalan Government opposes the proposals that come from the central government, but competition between the autonomous regions (not only on water issues) adds on the complex context. For instance, a coalition between the green party (15% of the seats at the Parliament) and the CiU party (center-right, governing with 37% of the seats), both pro-independence for Catalonia, probably allowed the Parliament rejected the PHE in the name of ecologic needs not being respected, especially for the Ebro Delta, while the Catalan Government earlier agreed on a new deviation of the Ebro for irrigation. For the environmental protection of the Ebro and to gain some actual independence of Catalonia regarding water, the Catalan government supports a deviation coming from the Rhone River in France, although the reduction of Barcelona’s water deficit would make this option irrelevant today (LaVanguardia, March 2014).

Figure 2 Seats repartition in the Catalan Parliament since the 2012 elections

Social, Economic, Cultural Context

Cultural, social and economic reasons participate in the desire for more autonomy for Catalans. From the 10th century, Catalonia has been a specific entity, playing strategic roles and facing alternate periods of power and depression, including deprivation of cultural identity, until the restoration of Spanish democracy after the Francoist dictatorship. As assessed in the timeline, Catalans are today very sensitive to the space given to their specific language and identity and the memory of parents killed during the dictatorship is present in many families. 12% of the population claim to use Spanish and Catalan languages equally, whereas 45.92% mainly use Spanish and 35.54% mainly use Catalan, especially in rural areas. On the economic side, Catalonia started its economic growth in the 50th and is now the highest GDP in Spain, although the 4th GDP per capita after the Basque Country, Madrid and Navarra. Its first sector is the service, with the tourism sector being predominant. Industry comes next with 40% of the GDP and the agriculture with 3%. The Catalan capital and largest city, Barcelona, is a major international cultural center and a major tourist destination. The economic advance of Catalunia is transposed in the amount of national tax that is paid compared to other regions. The economic crisis was a turning point for Catalans to openly assess the gap between their participation into the national economy and how they are served in return. Catalans regretted for instance that the first fast-train line was invested between Madrid and Sevilla, while a line between Barcelona and France would have connected Spain to Europe. Catalans accuse Madrid to disserve their interests for political reasons which in return increased the interest for more autonomy. The 2006 Catalan Status planned more financial autonomy for the Generalitat and this article was one of those canceled by the Constitutional Council in 2010. The water issue on the Ebro and broadly all around Catalonia particularly concerns the Catalans residing in rural areas. Communities living in the Ebro Delta are clearly , at the lowest level of the social ladder, living from traditional activities and feeling very far from the decision center in Barcelona. Few Catalans are opposing the liberal mainstream leading to demographic and urban explosion on the Northern East coast, although accommodation prices are increasing and it is now a problem to live in Barcelona for most of the Catalans. As elsewhere in Europe, the economic recession supported nationalist impulses, which are somehow at stake in the willingness to keep Catalan’s resources (financial, natural and human) for Catalonia.

Ecological and geographical background In terms of hydrography, most of Catalonia belongs to the Mediterranean Basin. The Catalan hydrographic network consists mainly of two important basins, the one of the Ebro and the one that comprises the internal basins of Catalonia; all of them flow to the Mediterranean Sea. The source of the river Ebro is in Fontibre (Cantabria). Flowing roughly eastwards it begins forming a wider river valley of limestone rocks when it reaches Navarre and La Rioja thanks to many tributaries flowing down from the Iberian System on one side, and the Navarre mountains and the western Pyrenees, on the other. There, the climate (the valley being isolated from sea air masses by surrounding mountains) becomes progressively more continental, with more extreme temperatures and drier characteristics. The valley expands and the Ebro's flow then becomes slower as its water volume increases, flowing across Aragon. The soils in most of the valley are primarily poor soils. After reaching Catalonia, the Ebro Valley narrows, and the river becomes constrained by mountain ranges, making wide bends. Massive dams have been built in this area, such as the dams at Mequinenza, Riba-roja, and Flix. In the final section of its course the river bends southwards and flows through spectacular gorges. After passing the gorges, the Ebro bends again eastwards near Tortosa before discharging in a delta on the Mediterranean Sea close to Amposta in the province of Tarragona.

Issues and Stakeholders

Analysis, Synthesis, and Insight

ASI:Applying the Water Diplomacy Framework

The Case of water management of the Ebro River Basin resources in Catalonia demonstrates the limit of a top-down process, as well as the limit of public consultation as a process. If stakeholders are consulted only, nothing says that they will be heard, and it does not mean that they will finally agree with the decision made. This is the main difference between consultation and consensus building, when the parties are ultimately bond by their position during the process. It does not mean that they are all happy with the final decision, but that being part of the negotiation and having been involved in trades, problem solving and joint analyzis, they understand the rationale behind the decision. They are “part” of the decision process.

Having a real consensus building approach is even more relevant when the political context is as present and freezing as in Catalonia today. Decisions are mainly made upon political considerations, as water is included in an overall game between the Central government and the Autonomous Community. Water becomes a pretext for disagreement rather than a problem to solve. It would be therefore useful to include the stakeholders in a regional consensus building process, allowing the political interests to be represented together with technical, legal, economic and environmental frames at the same table. This negotiation process would allow to build a consensus around water rights, environmental risks, self-determination expression and national solidarity through packages and technical as well as institutional innovation. In addition, different parties expressing their interests at the same time could lead to coalitions between specific interests, rather than polarization of positions through the media. Confidentiality could be a rule for such an instance of negotiation.

Finally, it will be interesting to see the position of the EU in a few weeks, as it may rise some further questions: how should the regulator react if a process that corresponds to the Directive theoretically (as the PHE elaboration process may well do), does not bring the expected outcomes as a result (PDE estimates that the environmental standard was not respected and that their position was not heard). Should the regulation (the Directive) be stricter? Should the EU support the capacity building of the organizations that are less heard so that they take ownership on their national process? Or should the EU support the existing PHE, for it is an actual improvement of water management in the Ebro compared to past policies? Giving time for opposing stakeholders to build more power for the next period, and hoping that the Delta ecology and other interests are not irremediably affected in the meantime?(read the full article... )

Contributed by: Aline Brachet (last edit: 11 July 2014)

Tagged with: water allocation self-determination environmental flow