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The Challenge of Sustainable Development
We are living in shifting times, times when our prevailing model for development is being questioned. The idea of science and technology acting as tools for "dominating" nature and for feeding a development based on limitless growth in a limited world is coming to be seen as out-dated. It is giving way to a more mature outlook. An outlook which studies the complexity of nature so as to work out a sustainable approach for our development.
The present model of development and political policies have led to a frenetic destruction of the reference points of our collective identity and a cultural devastation. This situation demands that we study the concept of sustainability and incorporate social and cultural values and heritage into this, forming an eco-social sustainability. We need to promote a new model of development based on inter-generational ethical values. The social, cultural and natural heritage of people should be considered a loan for the coming generations rather than an inheritance from the past.
In this context even the government's own documents, such as the White Paper on Water in Spain, recognises that the traditional model of water management inherited from 19th century ideas is in crisis. However, supply strategies based on huge subsidised public works, justified in the name of "the common good", still dominate the policies of the Spanish and Portuguese governments. They are also present to a certain extent in policies of the main opposition parties, although they are gradually changing. The key to this situation lies in the cultural and social inertia of our society, encouraged in the media by the lobby groups which have traditionally benefited from these kinds of policies.
The present socio-economic situation in Spain and Portugal is, fortunately, not that of the beginning of the 20th century. The challenges facing society then were based on overcoming the underdevelopment and illiteracy of the mainly rural societies which were chiefly dependent on the primary sector. However, nowadays in the European Union, the most immediate challenges are those of designing and developing new approaches towards sustainable development.
Outlines of the present situation
The water policy and building of large hydraulic works were essential for industrial, agricultural and urban development for a large part of the 20th century. These unquestionable achievements have led to a certain myth making about this productionist focus on water policy. This productionist myth, based on a massive state subsidy for the management of surface waters, has generated unsustainable spirals of demand. It has also led to unacceptable levels of economic inefficiency and irrationality.
In contrast, the management of ground waters has traditionally been developed using private rights of ownership and use. As the water users accept that they have to pay the necessary infrastructure and operating costs in this case, with very few subsidies, this has led to a more efficient and competitive management model. However, the individualistic nature of this model and a lack of responsibility shown by the Authorities has given way to serious situations of pollution, salinization, and overdrawing of aquifers. The lack of official control in areas such as the Segura river basin, Castellón, Almería, Jaén or La Mancha has allowed flagrant illegality, insolidarity and led to a complete absence of organisation of collective intelligence. These situations are calling out for a deep social-cultural change which is unlikely to come about if the Authorities do not take on the responsibilities they are obliged to by law.
The absence of criteria for urban and regional planning in coherence with sustainable development in large urban areas, and especially in the main tourist areas on the Mediterranean coastline, the Balearic Isles, and the Canary Islands, completes the panorama of what in Spain are habitually considered "water deficient areas". Offering grand inter-basin water transfers as a "solution" to this situation is an example of irresponsible dead-end politics which will inevitably encourage the spiral of unsustainability and bring about enormous economic, social and environmental costs.
The lack of territorial arguments to justify the need for inter-basin transfers as a part of hydrological planning has been denounced time and time again. The interplay between hydrological planning and territorial development cannot be resolved with imprecise and ambiguous terms like "hydrological imbalances", or speaking about basins as either having a deficit or a surplus of water resources. From a territorial point of view, any public interventions regarding water, especially the idea of redistributing it geographically, require explicit references to the wider strategies for development. This is the minimum requirement for social debate and agreement. This should be essential in a state currently immersed in a process of transformation of its territorial political structure. The absence of such reference points and social agreements is one of the key factors for the institutional framework in which inter-regional water conflicts flourish.
Furthermore, the systematic contempt towards the values, functions and environmental services offered by river ecosystems has led to an unprecedented process of degradation of our rivers, and their accompanying riversides and wetlands, with huge direct and indirect costs. What we have now learnt about these complex ecosystems allows us to better appreciate the value of a river and its riverside vegetation, deltas, estuaries and littoral platforms. Amongst other functions, they provide a natural treatment of waters, the calming of river floods, conservation of bio-diversity, and balanced transport and distribution of sediments along the river bed, deltas, and beaches.
The deep relationship between rivers and our lands and society has been forgotten or ignored over and over again. The pre-eminence of the productive uses of water has led us to destroy extremely valuable natural heritage and ignore the rights of the peoples who have lived in the river valleys for hundreds or even thousands of years forming a significant relationship with the rivers. The right of these people and communities to live where they have laid down the roots of their very existence deserves a place in the list of human rights as it should be valued and respected. This runs deeper than the simple win-lose game of "majorities" and "minorities", so often mentioned to cover for, in the name of the "common good", the business interests of lobby groups.
There has been a huge sacrifice of social and natural heritage in Spain, especially in high lands, thanks to the building of over 1,200 large dams, together with the continuous destruction of riverside vegetation, the drying up of wetlands and a generalised pollution of continental waters. This should set an extremely high value on the rivers, wetlands and other water bodies which are still well preserved. It should also mean that the people whose lands and households are threatened by the building of reservoirs have a certain moral authority in their fight against the construction of these large dams which are putting their very survival at risk.
The outlines of the change towards a New Water Culture.
Within the context of this crisis, the urge to work towards a new sustainable model of development has given birth to a wide social movement in favour of what is coming to be known as the New Water Culture. The emphasis on the word Culture is neither coincidence nor a merely semantic use, rather it reflects the need to set up an open and wide framework which goes further than purely technical or political thinking. We must accept a radical change in our way of thinking, moving on from the present understanding of water as just a productive utility. It should be seen as an eco-social question, where the word "eco" recovers its full Aristotlean meaning of "oikonomia" - the art of a correct administration of the house - with its combination of economy and ecology.
Understanding rivers as complex and dynamic living bodies, and not as mere collectors of water. Accepting that quantity and quality are two sides of the same coin. Seeing that having waters of good quality means respecting and preserving the functionality and life of the ecosystems which make up the natural cycle of water. Recovering the traditional leisure values of water, the aesthetics and symbolism of these landscapes, so characteristic of the Mediterranean, both formed and influenced by water. All this requires a cultural change, not only in the Administrations, but also in society as a whole.
The concept of landscape, as seen in the recently implemented European Landscape Convention ("an essential component of people's surroundings, an expression of the diversity of their shared cultural, natural, economic and social heritage, and a foundation of their identity), constitutes a new institutional support for the panorama of a New Water Culture. The idea that landscape represents an essential element of individual and social well-being. The reference to the historical and natural fortuitousness of landscape, overcoming simplistic or superficial treatments, acknowledging the factors that have made possible a certain kind of territory. The application of the precautions laid down in the Convention to protect, plan and manage water landscapes, some of the most vulnerable and threatened sectors. All this together with the aspirations of the peoples concerned lays out the road to the New Water Culture.
One of the keys of the New Water Culture is the concept of conservation. Not just conservation of the physical and chemical quality of the waters, but quality as seen from an ecosystem perspective. Maintaining the functions of wetlands, rivers, and their riverbanks means that they, in turn, will offer sustainable environmental services and values, starting with that of a renewed availability of high quality water resources.
Another key factor is undoubtlessly that of efficiency. Moving on from the traditional supply strategies to a new outlook based on demand management. This involves serious rethinking on basic concepts of the present model such as that of demand. Demand has usually been explained as an independent variable which the supplier must simply satisfy but not question. Redefining this concept, based on Economics Science, as a variable dependent on many institutional factors, especially that of price, would open up a radically different vision which would allow for a large range of management options.
The third factor is in organising society's collective intelligence so as to design a sustainable regional planning. This involves integrating water management into regional development based on sustainable coherence as the new backbone of a renewed idea of the common good.
To progress along this route of finding new solutions based on this new outlook demands a significant renewal of water management institutions. The clear engineering bias in these institutions is a simple consequence of the road they have followed since their origins. Their policies have always concentrated on activities "promoting" large public construction works. The opacity of this management, in turn carefully controlled by the grand construction, electricity, and irrigation lobbies, together with a suffocating bureaucratisation in place, is currently threatening the prestige of the Hydrographic Confederations in Spain and the Portuguese Water Institute.
Notwithstanding this, the movement towards a New Water Culture, of which this Foundation forms a part, does not pretend to reject the historical contributions or inheritance of the structuralist model. Nor does it pretend to devalue or ignore the valuable contributions of developed technology that civil engineering can and must keep making in the field of water management. It does not want to question the importance of public institutions in this matter. On the contrary, we see that the Administration has an important role to play in organising this collective intelligence demanded by the sustainable development panorama. However, we also believe that a deep renewal of the Administration is urgent and indispensable, as originally proposed by Joaquin Costa. This New Water Culture, a free flow of information and ideas between different areas of study, and the citizens' participation in decision-making are the keys for this change.
One of the most pressing questions to deal with is, without doubt, the management of river basins. The European Paper on Water and the Water Framework Directive of the EU demand that Spain and Portugal refocus their water management within the natural framework of their corresponding basins. Although this principle has traditionally been accepted by Spanish administration, it has only been considered in the framework of national borders. To organise the planning and management of waters beyond these simplistic frontiers, integrating social, environmental and economic realities of the territories which form part of each hydrographical basin, on either side of the political frontier, requires a deep change in the way of thinking of both countries. The participation and direct dialogue between the peoples and institutions of both countries within each basin, without lessening the importance of their respective national sovereignties, is a challenge we must take up and a task to be carried out urgently.
On the other hand, it is not just a question of overcoming these frontiers but also of integrating important factors into the management of each basin, such as delta and estuary ecosystems, and littoral platforms with the decisive influence they receive from rivers and their enormous social, economic and ecological importance. The usual avoidance of dealing with these ecosystems of utmost important bio-diversity, together with the challenge of trans-frontier integration and the objective of recovering the good ecological state of our rivers, demanded in the new Framework Directive, poses the need for a deep rethinking of the present notion of "basin management".
Times of crisis, times of opportunism
Times of crisis are times of confusion, and confusion feeds opportunism. Recently, the relaxing of regulations regarding water rights and the creation of a market of these rights have created expectations of renewal and incentives for efficiency. The entrance of privatisation processes in the services of water distribution and urban management promoted by new and powerful multinational business sectors is modifying the traditional framework of interests and its respective power game. All these new elements call for reflection and evaluation.
The role of a market clearly allows for incentives of efficiency which could promote useful improvement processes in the distribution and productive use of waters in the agricultural, industrial, and urban sectors. However, it is also true that market dynamics completely ignore questions relating to the management of social, environmental, ethical and regional equality values. Hence, to consider the marketplace as the "magic wand" which will guarantee a New Water Culture is a serious mistake.
The Reform of the Water Law in 1999 in Spain has led to the prevalence of market options in a confusing sea of water concessional rights, and all this within a context of generalised misgovernance of water uses. These confusing market options together with the expectations of large water transfers, encouraged by the present National Hydrological Plan, are opening the gates for huge processes of speculation. Thanks to the incentives offered by the unsustainable dynamics of the urban-tourism development of the Western Mediterranean, these processes threaten not only the hydrological reality of the Ebro, but that of the majority of the Atlantic river basins shared with Portugal.
Therefore, while it is necessary to consider how to make the most of the potentials of the marketplace, it is also necessary to remember its limitations and falsehoods.
The Foundation for a New Water Culture
Herein we have laid down the context and the challenges we face. Two Iberian Congresses for the Planning and Management of Waters (Zaragoza, 1998, and Oporto, 2000) have opened a breach in these moments of crisis and transition, projecting light, illusion and endeavour in favour of the New Water Culture. Taking this baton, of compromise and expectations, the Foundation accepts the challenge of developing the New Water Culture in a setting of sustainable development.
The tasks we will carry out are those which first laid the seed for the Iberian Congress:
- Develop projects of interdisciplinary research to analyse the most important water management problems in the Iberian Peninsula and other territories of Spain and Portugal.
- Develop interdisciplinary networks, means of communication, and technical-scientific debate in relation to water management, paying special attention to the relationship between universities, business, and the Administration.
- Promote the bringing together of the citizens belonging to the social collectives and institutions of Spain and Portugal and their mutual knowledge with a view to favouring the integrated and combined management within each shared hydrographical basin.
- Encourage and promote the relationship between scientific-technical fields and the social movements with an interest in this matter, fostering information, training and social debate.
- Promote the development and application of this New Water Culture in the European Union with a special focus on the realities of the Mediterranean environment and also those of Latin America, closely linked to Iberian countries by culture and history.
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