FEATURE - Spain split on River Ebro water row
Date: 15-Apr-03
Country: SPAIN
Author: Emma Ross-Thomas
Now the government has come up with a scheme which aims to put a definitive end to her woes: with 4.2 billion euros ($4.52 billion) it plans to re-route the Ebro, Spain's longest river, with 1,000 km (600 miles) of pipeline.
But at what cost? Wrecking one of Europe's most ecologically important wetlands, according to experts. And for what benefit? Apart from aiding farmers like Cubells, building golf courses in a virtual desert, say the critics.
The huge project to redirect water from the fertile northeast around the Ebro to the parched south is the most controversial part of Spain's National Hydrological Plan (NHP), which has pitted one region of the country against another.
Touted as the solution to Spain's historic water problems, the plan also involves flooding valleys and villages in the Pyrenees to build some 100 dams. The government challenges critics to come up with a better way to bring water to the southeastern regions of Valencia, Murcia and Almeria.
The 7,700 hectare (19,030 acres) lagoon-dotted Ebro Delta, home to flamingos, herons and oyster-catchers, depends on silt from the river to stay afloat and is already sinking a millimetre a year. With its lifeblood redirected it will disappear, experts say.
Despite these environmental concerns, Spain hopes the European Union will pick up part of the bill for the project as the southeast - used to film the "spaghetti westerns" of years past like "The Good, the Bad and Ugly" - desperately needs water to maintain its brisk rate of economic growth.
"It never rains here," said Cubells, whose farm is in Ciezo, Murcia. "However well we manage it, there's just no water."
Yet hundreds of kilometres away, the Ebro burst its banks this winter, bolstering the argument in favour of draining off the river, a plan backed by Environment Minister Elvira Rodriguez, the latest addition to Spain's right-wing government.
"When you see so much water and you see the territories that need it, you see that this National Water Plan...is what's needed," Rodriguez said recently.
She also recognises that the plan has created "a confrontation between territories" in a country of strong regional identities.
Cristobal Aguado, the farmers' trade union chief in Valencia - after Murcia the region set to gain most water from the plan - says their demands are not unreasonable.
"To maintain the economic potential we have, we need water. Any kind of project damages the environment...we've got just as much right (to the water) as they do."
"CONCRETE LOBBY" BLAMED
Environmentalists and many experts say the people who would benefit most are the so-called concrete lobby, firms likely to be contracted to build nearly 500 km (310 miles) of pipeline.
Water expert Asit Biswas of the Third World Centre for Water Management, says the project, which he reckons would cost 6.5 to 9.5 billion euros - up to more than twice the government estimate - is environmentally disastrous and desalination technology makes it look old-fashioned.
"There are cheaper, better methods...you'll have this white elephant for the next 200 years, reversing it would cost even more," said Biswas, one of several scientists who recently reported to Europe on the plan.
"The only benefit I see is for the construction industry."
Antonio Esteban, environmental engineer and water advisor to the Balearic Islands government, also favours desalination - which he argues has a much lower overall cost.
The other main beneficiary is the tourism sector on the booming Valencia and Murcia coasts where new tourist developments and golf courses increase the demand for water.
"They're building golf courses in areas where there are water use restrictions in summer, more and more golf courses so that the rich Europeans will come," said 33-year-old Cubells.
Valencia and Murcia were Spain's second and fourth fastest growing regions in 2001 with gross domestic product growth of over three percent, ahead of a