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.