Spanish water project halted, rethought

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VALENCIA, Spain — One of the most controversial moves by Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero came on his first day in office in April: He suspended the $15 billion first step of an elaborate project that would have diverted water from the Ebro, Spain's longest river, to southern Spain.

The plan would divert one-sixth of the water from the Ebro and send it south via 600 miles of canals and pipelines and more than 100 new dams and reservoirs. It would be the biggest water project in European history.

Zapatero said the concept, which had been criticized as a giveaway to the contractors and tourist industry of the lands along the Mediterranean, had to be rethought.

Coastal zones there have been transformed by huge resorts, apartment complexes and golf courses demanding more and more water in a region that is running short of what is needed by the farmers and industries.

"The fundamental question is what type of development is realistic for southern Spain or any region that is semiarid," said Carlos Arribas, a physicist with Ecologists in Action. "That's the debate we need, but we haven't had."

Ramos Llamas, who teaches hydrology at Madrid University, is one of the experts who say that while Spain may suffer water shortages from lack of rain, above all it squanders its water and lacks proper soil management.

He and his colleagues at the Ground Water Project point out that while the country has the lowest rainfall in Western Europe, it consumes the most water per capita after Italy. Even so, water prices here are among Europe's lowest.

Water is so cheap there is a saying that farmers save more by letting it run than by repairing a leak. Around Valencia in southern Spain, 250,000 acres of citrus orchards are mainly irrigated by flooding. Many farmers draw water from rivers and reservoirs, and recycling water is rare.

Rather than meet the needs of the south, water specialists from Spain and as far away as Israel and California have warned that the Ebro project would make the situation worse by creating even more demand.

— The New York Times

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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