RESUMENLa costa mediterránea española ha necesitado introducir, durante la última década, nuevas fuentes de suministro hídrico con el fin de satisfacer la creciente demanda. Partiendo de esta situación, este estudio tiene entre sus objetivos evidenciar las características del ciclo hidrosocial en la ciudad de Torrevieja y, a partir de este análisis, poner de manifiesto las medidas que se han adoptado y han permitido asegurar el suministro en un contexto de déficit hídrico intensificado por la expansión urbanística y las demandas agrícolas. Para la consecución de estos objetivos se analizan las relaciones entre actores, procesos metabólicos y origen de los recursos hídricos que conforman este ciclo hidrosocial, desde la perspectiva teórica de la Ecología Política Urbana. La utilización de esta metodología pone de manifiesto que el uso de recursos no convencionales ha aliviado la demanda agrícola mediante el agua depurada, pero ha generado nuevas problemáticas al incorporar el agua desalada.Palabras clave: Ciclo hidrosocial, recursos hídricos, reutilización, desalinización, España. ABSTRACTThe Spanish Mediterranean coast has needed to introduce, over the last decade, new sources of water supply in order to meet growing demand. Based on this situation, one of this study's objectives is to demonstrate the characteristics of the hydrosocial cycle in the city of Torrevieja and from this analysis, highlighting the measures that have been taken and have ensured the supply in a context of deficit water intensified by urban sprawl and large agricultural demands. To achieve these objectives the relations between actors, metabolic processes and origin of water resources that form this hydrosocial cycle, from the theoretical perspective of Urban Political Ecology, are analyzed. The use of this methodology shows that the use of non-conventional resources has eased agricultural demand through reclaimed water, but has created new problems by incorporating desalinated water.
The need to find new sources of water due to the climatic conditions of certain areas of Spain, as well as the increasing urban tourism and agricultural demands, and in addition to the foreseen scenarios as a result of climate change, have led to the use of non-conventional resources, such as desalination. Although the Canary Islands already resorted to desalination plants 40 years ago, it was not until the 1990s that some of these plants began to be introduced to areas of high water deficit within the peninsula of Spain. Nevertheless, their boom occurred in 2005 due to the government's propulsion of the 'A.G.U.A.' program, through which they installed a multitude of plants along the Mediterranean coast, as a result of a change in government and in its water management policy. This source was seen as an almost inexhaustible and suitable alternative in comparison with transfers, because of their regional and political controversies. The water generation capacity of these new plants was calculated based on demand perspectives related to the real estate boom, with demand in volumes that were never reached, due to the bursting of the real estate bubble and the economic crisis. In addition, the high-energy consumption associated with the desalination process (reverse osmosis) substantially increases the price of water, which makes it impossible for some sectors, especially irrigators, to have access to these waters. This communication details all the aspects related to the evolution of desalination in Spain, as well as its current situation, where as a consequence of the above, these plants, which entailed a significant economic investment, are working at very low yields and using their water as a strategic resource, especially during times of drought.
The heterogeneity of governance and management models of municipal water supply in the Spanish Mediterranean coastline has increased in recent decades. This diversity is explained by the increase of private companies responsible for the management of the local water service and the presence of supramunicipal public entities responsible for water catchment, treatment and distribution to the municipalities. Based on the review of the existing literature, the information available on the websites of the leading corporate groups in the water sector and contacting with councils, the companies and supramunicipal entities involved in the service of municipal water in the Mediterranean coastline have been identified. The objective of this work is to analyse the territorial presence of the main actors in the urban water management through its cartographic representation, as well as analyse its ownership and importance in terms of population supplied. This analysis shows a high presence of companies belonging to the AGBAR group that supply around half of the total population in the Spanish coastline municipalities. Likewise, there is a regional specialization of certain private companies that concentrate the urban water management for the most part of the coastline municipalities. This is the case of FACSA, which manages the water services in 87% of coastline municipalities in Castellón, or Hidraqua in Alicante, that operates in the 65%. Furthermore, the presence of large supramunicipal public entities is widespread along the coastline, especially in Catalonia and the southeast. In contrast, some municipalities of the Balearic Islands reflect a singular situation, characterized by the presence of several different companies within the same municipality, both public and private. In the light of these results, the urban water management in the Spanish Mediterranean coastline shows the dominance of the private sector, which is present in the 82% of the municipalities.
The Hydrosocial Cycle (HSC) has been widely applied and discussed as a consolidated research line to rethink the contemporary challenges that condition the urban and agroecosystem nexus. However, additional research directions are still open to guide policy and decision-makers in reinforcing stakeholders’ engagement and interaction to resolve tensions between water demands. This perspective paper suggests updating the HSC approach to improve the analysis of stakeholder interaction when addressing water scarcity in waterscapes. After briefly review the most relevant contributions of the HSC approach in the last two decades, we develop a preliminary framework to reinforce stakeholders’ interdependence analysis by designing a questionnaire to synthesize five main behavioral patterns conditioning stakeholders’ interactions: relevance, representativeness, recognition, assessment, and collaboration. Then, each pattern is organized in a triple-loop approach: to be, to do, and to share to characterize the mutual (mis)understanding of the stakeholders. The results of its application to Benidorm (south of Spain), a mass-tourism destination coexisting with rural development in tension for water supply, exemplified how 1) most stakeholders consider themselves important, but some of them are unaware of the role of others, 2) all stakeholders receive a higher punctuation in terms of functions rather than actions, and 3) all stakeholders agree on the benefits of the predisposition of parties (willingness) to achieve agreements in the short or medium term. Future research should consider how to address the lack of representativeness and power imbalance together with mechanisms to reinforce longitudinal studies in which actions from stakeholders could be contrasted.
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