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 2.8 percent national average.

Cubells irrigates with water from the over-exploited Segura river which would get almost half the water from the Ebro transfer. It also received water from a similar 1960s transfer from the Tagus river, which was widely considered a failure.

When Cubells came to Murcia people bathed in the river, now in some parts it is more like a sewer.

Europe's Environment Commissioner has not yet decided if the plan conforms with community law and therefore whether to fund it. The European Parliament has voted against river diversions, though it did not mention Spain's plan by name.

FLOW ALREADY STEMMED

Farmers who irrigate from the Ebro in the northeast fret that their livelihoods could be threatened if the plan goes ahead, and say the already diminishing Ebro cannot cope with it.

"As soon as there's a bad year for rain, they'll tell us to tighten our belts," Pedro Suner, 46, told Reuters, on his 20-hectare (50-acre) farm in Catalonia's Benissanet, planted with pink blossoming peach trees.

Last summer the water authority told Suner to stop irrigating as the Ebro was running low. He and other farmers got the ruling overturned but they fear that after the water plan, with the river under more strain, their appeals would not be heeded.

The Ebro's flow is volatile but official figures show a falling trend over the last 40 years.

On its banks, where "Stop the NHP" is scrawled over buildings, people say in summer you can wade across the Ebro.

Those backing the plan say what they need to replenish their tired rivers is the water "wasted" as it runs out to sea. The government says the NHP sets out to protect the Delta, but experts and locals wonder what can be done once it is starved of the silt it depends on.

Delta rice farmer Jordi Prat told Reuters he expects yields to fall if the plan goes ahead as more salt water and less river water will damage crops.

Fishermen say fish and shellfish will leave if river water, rich in phytoplankton - fish food - stops flowing into the sea.

After Egypt built the Aswan Dam in the 1960s, studies showed drastic declines in fish catches in the Mediterranean.

Fisherman Jordi Montoro says the NHP would be the final straw: with over-fishing, and dams already stemming the Ebro's flow, fewer fish are being caught.

"We've got enough problems. Adding the NHP would be a catastrophe."

TO FUND OR NOT TO FUND

An internal report from the office of the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs seen by Reuters said it was concerned about the economic rationale of the plan and did not find "sound ground" for funding.

When Europe cuts agriculture subsidies Spain's farmland will probably be reduced as produce from other countries becomes competitive. A European directive says that by 2010 countries must address recovering costs of water services, though it does leave room for flexibility.

Academic studies opposing the NHP are easy to come by. The environment ministry cites a study from scientists at the University of California at Berkeley as favouring the plan. It recommends some tweaking, but says such plans tend to cost more than expected and initially deliver less water than planned.

The deputy mayor of the Delta town of Tortosa, Josep Maria Franquet, a hydrological engineer, resigned from the ruling Popular Party over the plan.