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Ecology and Water management in Catalonia Number 25 - january 2000 Editorial Ecological status of rivers and water management in Catalonia Narcís Prat Infrastructures and resources. Do we need water from the Rhone? Jesús Carrera The environmental taxation system and the new water culture Enric Tello Municipalities and the new Water Act Carlos Padrós & Lucia Casado Irrigation agriculture and sustainability Xavier Coll Interview with Marta Lacambra Lluís Reales Environmental legislation Ignasi Doñate News Johanna Cáceres Ecology of Leisure Xavier Duran

Editorial

Towards a new model for water management

A few months ago, just before the end of the previous period of office, the Catalonian Parliament passed the Llei d’Ordenació, Gestió i Tributació de l’Aigua (Water Planning, Management and Taxation Act). Both European and Spanish dynamics contributed to the joint consensus of all the social bodies involved in the management of the water resources in Catalonia. It was an extremely significant and urgent agreement bearing in mind previous failures.
The new act is an excellent starting point for a positive move forward in the implementation of a sustainable model of water resource management in Catalonia. The investment policy that only gave priority to water collectors, treatment plants and storage has been rendered obsolete. It was necessary in the past, but it is now time to move forward towards a model that encompasses water management in an integrated fashion, one that maintains and improves the ecological state of aquatic ecosystems and which guarantees access to this resource, but from a rational and sustainable use of water. This is the spirit of the new Act and the task that l’Agència Catalana de l’Aigua or ACA (Catalan Water Board) has to develop.
L’ACA has a complex, difficult task ahead. Leaving climatic changes to one side, and how these are affecting the Mediterranean areas, this new body, as stated by Narcís Prat in his article, has to be capable of implementing a water management model in Catalonia where the conservation and regeneration aspects are just as important as those of economics or resource capture. The Professor of Ecology at the University of Barcelona (UB) reviewed the last few years of water resource management in our country –based on a strategy of offer – and proposed an alternative management that would take into account sustainability criteria.
For his part, Jesús Carrera, from l’Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeria de Camins, Canals i Ports (Higher Technical School of Civil Engineering) at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), tackles the polemic question of water transfers from the Rhone. Carrera argued in favour of transfers from the Rhone as being a good solution for Catalonia, based on a close scrutiny of the demand, centred on Barcelona and the surrounding area, the available resources and its quality.
The following contribution is centred on the environmental taxation system. The UB professor, Enric Tello, explains why the water war broke out and described the new taxation scheme behind the new Act and how this made it possible to put an end to the conflict. The legal aspects, and specifically the central role played by the municipalities within the new organisational model are dealt with by Lucía Casado and Carles Padrós, both professors of administrative law at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
The point of view of those people living in the country cannot be ignored in this issue dedicated to water resources. The President of the Junta de Govern dels Canals d’Urgell (the Governing Council for the Urgell Canals), Xavier Coll, reminds us of how agriculture was the main driving force behind the development of the lands in the west. In this sense, having the required water resources available would allow this development to be consolidated which, according to Coll, must include measures for modernisation and greater efficiency in the use of the resources.
The present General Secretary of the Catalan Ministry of the Environment, Marta Lacambra, is the subject of this issue's interview, and this is no accident as Lacambra played a key role in seeking consensus and the process of drawing up the new Act. Finally, to complete issue 25 of the magazine «Medi Ambient. Tecnología i Cultura»(The Environment. Technology and Culture) we have the habitual and knowledgeable legal analysis by environmental lawyer Ignasi Doñate
 

Lluís Reales
Editor of Medi Ambient. Tecnologia i cultura

Ecological status of rivers and water management in Catalonia

Narcís Prat
Department of Ecology, University of Barcelona

Traditionally, water management has been directed at covering an ever-growing deficit with new offers of water supply. This model must be replaced by another, based on the rational and sustainable use of the resource and the protection of the environment, as envisaged by new legislation on this matter. Indeed, the water management of the immediate future lies in satisfying, at the same time, human and environmental needs. To guarantee success in this undertaking, one must first examine why management has proved unsatisfactory in the past and what is the best management strategy for a small and very active Mediterranean country like ours.
 

On the threshold of the third millennium, water management in Catalonia and Europe is at a decisive point reflected in important changes, which will soon come about, in legislation. In Catalonia, with a law that has only been passed (the Law on Water Regulation, Management and Taxation), in Spain, with the Water Law Reform and, finally, in Europe with the imminent adoption of the Framework Water Directive. The same key words appear in all three laws, «rational and sustainable use of water», «preservation, protection and improvement of the environment» or «maintenance or improvement of the ecological status». The objective of water management for the next millennium centres as much on guaranteeing the resource as on doing so whilst maintaining or improving the ecological status of aquatic ecosystems.

Water Management in Catalonia: new perspectives, old problems

Until late into the 20th century the only aim of water management in Catalonia and Spain was to guarantee the availability of the resource by whatever means, fetching it from wherever was necessary (supply strategy), afterwards came concern for the quality of drinking water (a resource fit for consumption). However, the environmental problems linked to the overexploitation of resources and the degradation of aquatic ecosystems have only recently begun to worry us, when treatment through water treatment plants has been seen not as a restraint on growth, but as a necessity. It appears that water management for the next millennium will centre on the preservation of the environment without forgetting the right of all people to a guarantee of quality and quantity of water supply.
One might ask if in Catalonia a Mediterranean country of sporadic and irregular rainfall, it is possible to establish a water management policy with the environment as its main concern. Can we really guarantee high levels of a quality supply and at the same time have rivers of a good ecological status?
Catalonia has a very active industry and use of water is intensive when resources are limited and there is strong competition for resources, both between consumers and between them and the environment. As a consequence, the natural ecosystems have suffered considerable degradation, through both the overexploitation of resources and the uses water is put to, with the corresponding pollution. For this reason, and despite the effort made to improve water treatment, we have had many problems so far restoring the ecological status of our aquatic ecosystems.
Furthermore, Catalonia is large country and the problem of water is not the same in irrigated farmlands as in urban and industrial areas. According to the hydrological plans for the inland basins and the Ebro, all together in Catalonia, urban and industrial demand is a third of the agricultural demand (1,039 hm3/year as opposed to 2,522 hm3/year). However, these values are very different if we compare the Segre basin, with an agricultural demand of 846 hm3/year and a domestic and industrial demand of only 41 hm3 with the Baix Llobregat, where these proportions are inverted (50 hm3/year for agriculture and 527 hm3/year domestic and industrial). The different distribution of resources and demand has already given rise to several transfers, such as from the river Ter to the Barcelona area or from the Ebro to Tarragona.
Up to now, water management has been directed at covering an ever-increasing deficit with new supplies of water. This model cannot stay the same in the future. It must be replaced with a different model which complies with the stipulations of the legislation mentioned at the beginning of this text. If our future is to contain management which satisfies at once both human and environmental needs, we must examine why it has proved so unsatisfactory in the past and what is the best management strategy for a small and very active Mediterranean country.

Lessons from the immediate past: the Water Treatment Plan for Catalonia

An important effort
Catalonia is outstanding for its efforts to implement a Water Treatment Plan aimed at complying with the European Directive on water treatment which envisaged that water treatment in cities with over 2,000 inhabitants should be undertaken before the year 2000. This effort has been held up as an example for many Mediterranean countries and has been carried out thanks to the boost received from an entity which was created for precisely that purpose: the Water Treatment Agency, attached to the Ministry of the Environment of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia. This entity has recently published a report on the Treatment action undertaken in the period from 1992 to 1998. The figures are quite impressive. We have gone from 90 treatment plants in service and 53 under construction, to 210 working plants and 48 under construction, as well as 39 planned for the future, which will give a total of 297 large water treatment plants to be in service in 2001. For localities of fewer than 2,000 inhabitant equivalents (still awaiting water treatment), plans are to build 1,700 wastewater treatment systems between 2001 and 2005 thus completing the Water Treatment Plan for Catalonia. We are also informed in the opuscule of the Sludge Treatment Programme, that today most sludge is still sent to dumps or dumped in the sea (over 125,000 tons/year), but that this will be composted or thermal-dried before the year 2001, following the installation of co-generation systems in large treatment plants (up to 80 MW of power).
The same text also contains information on the results of the Industrial Waste Water Treatment Programme, which has reduced the pollutant load to be treated from 82,564 tons of COD/year to 44,875, with the greatest reduction in public river-bed dumping (from 63,141 to 18,421 tons/year). To this end 436 GDP (Gradual Decontamination Programmes) have been implemented in Catalan Industry, and 516 subsidies have been granted to companies to condition their treatment or pre-treatment systems. Finally, we are informed that 8,466 inspections were carried out in companies.

The results: some better than others
The results of these efforts have been evaluated by the Water Treatment Agency through the Simplified Water Quality Index (SWQI), an index of water quality that varies from 0 to 100 and which uses 5 physico-chemical parameters: temperature, COD, suspended matter, dissolved oxygen and conductivity. Between 1992 and 1998 the number of checkpoints has increased from 55 to 143. According to this physico-chemical index, the water quality in Catalan rivers has improved considerably. The rivers Foix, Tordera, Besòs and Llobregat (traditionally the most polluted in Catalonia) have undergone a remarkable recovery, according to this index. This can be seen in table 1, where the points sampled in those two years have been divided in to 5 categories, although very few points were sampled in 1992. In view of these results, one could feel quite satisfied with the outcome of the Water Treatment policy and believe that our rivers are clean and full of life.
In order to verify this recovery of the Tordera, Besòs, Llobregat and the Foix, we have compared SWQI data with data on the biological quality of these same rivers from the study carried out on their ecological quality by the ECOBILL team of the University of Barcelona, at the behest of the Department of the Environment of the Provincial Council of Barcelona. This study uses the FBILL index, a biological index, which uses macroinvertebrate organisms (insects, snails, etc. which measure over 250 micra) as indicators of water quality. Values vary from 0 (abysmal quality) to 10 (excellent). You can find further information on this index, its formulation and its relation with the SWQI index, in the different publications mentioned in the bibliography. In fig.  ??? a map shows the biological quality of the four rivers at all the points sampled in the summer of 1998.
As you can se from table 1 and figure 1, there are still many points with abysmal biological quality in our rivers (FBILL values of less than 4), up to 15% of points studied, particularly in the lower parts of the rivers and many are in the Besòs (red and orange points in fig. 1), whereas according to the SWQI, this is true for only 5% of points. In the middle category (FBILL of 54-5), that is, polluted rivers, it is true for 18%, while in places where the biological community differs very little from the natural community, the figure is 37% (whereas the SWQI increases this value to 52%). However, points in FBILL category 6-7 are not necessarily of good quality, many of them have undergone alteration (especially eutrophy). Physico-chemical index values do not give enough information on the ecological quality of river water. The truth is that the Water Treatment Plan may have improved the physico-chemical quality of Catalan rivers, but is has not obtained the same degree of regeneration of its biological quality.

Reasons for the difference
The aim of the current Water Treatment Plan is to comply with the European Directive water purification, which sets only two parameters to measure the efficiency of treatment, the BOD and Suspended Solids, which must be fewer than 25 ppm on exiting the treatment plant. The Plan to fulfil this Directive consists of rapidly building infrastructure (collectors, treatment plants), with the emphasis on speed and forgetting the fact that the receiving media are Mediterranean rivers with flows which are very low or non-existent on occasion. Differences are also due to the fact that the chemical index used to gauge the Plan's efficiency (SWQI) is not a good indicator of the water quality of fluvial ecosystems, which must be measured with biological indicators as stated in the framework Water Directive.
Although one must recognise the efforts made in recent years and the improvement in the biological status of some rivers obtained through water treatment, (in 1992 the number of points included in the «polluted» category, that is biological index 5 or lower, in the four rivers studied was as high as 50%), the situation is far from satisfactory, particularly if one takes into account the millions invested (up 40,000 million pesetas per year).
The fact that Mediterranean rivers, such as the Besòs or the Foix have not recovered their water quality is due to several factors, the most important being:
• Lack of dilution of the flow discharged by treatment plants.
• The high concentrations of ammonia treatment plants (even the biological types) dump in rivers.
The Water Treatment Plan for Catalonia forgot that ammonium with a high pH turns into ammonia which is highly toxic in very low concentrations and this means that fish and the majority of macroinvertebrates when ammonia values are as low as 1 ppm, when some plants dump concentrations as high as 20 or 30 ppm. For this reason, the fish and invertebrate fauna have not recovered in most of the lower stretches of the Besòs, Congost, Tenes, Ripoll or the Rubí or the Gurri gullies downstream from the Vic treatment plant.
The importance of ammonium can be seen in all the stretches of river downstream from the large biological treatment plants built in recent years in the lower Besòs, Foix and Llobregat. In table 2 is a list of the top ten treatment plants in maintenance costs (according to the Agency's advance budget for 1999) and their effect on the environment are given a value. All the plants mentioned are currently biological, with the exception of the Sant Adrià del Besòs plant, which is physico-chemical.
These plants have problems because of the mixing of industrial and domestic water, which makes treatment difficult; (it is easy to work the Ribes de Fresser plant, for example, but far more complicated to run the one at Igualada). The real problem, though, lies in the design (nobody thought of the ammonia levels on exit as a problem) and in the fact that nobody has taken into account that the receiving medium is very often a dried-up river or a river lacking the necessary power of dilution. This makes the regeneration of the aquatic ecosystem impossible. It may be said that many Catalan river today have their source at treatment plants (the Congost at the Centelles plant and later at the Granollers plant, the Ripoll at the Sant Llorenç Savall plant and again at Castellar del Vallés, the Caldes gully at the Caldes de Montbui plant, the Foix at the Vilafranca del Penedès plant, the Rubí gully at the Terrassa plant and so on).
The large biological treatments of Catalonia leave the water with a BOD, a COD and an ammonia content with values of between 5 and 10 times those found in any river (and which should not exceed 5, 10 and 0,5 ppm respectively). The river therefore must be sufficiently high to dilute these substances and clean itself. This is not the case of Mediterranean rivers, which are always very low and for this reason the current Water Treatment model does not guarantee the recovery of our rivers, despite the improvements there have been in some of them. In short, the evaluation of water treatment in Catalonia is not as optimistic or satisfactory as it appears in the opuscule published by the Agency. The improvements in some rivers cannot hide the fact that the recovery of life in most rivers has been very disappointing (many politicians and managers have not been able to keep their promises of taking a swim downstream from the treatment plants they inaugurated).

Ecological status, much more than water quality

As aquatic ecosystems, rivers are much more than the life in the water, as equally, or more, important are the riparian communities. The bank is a strip of floodable land next to the river which goes from the low-water channel to the area covered by the most abundant flooding, making the vegetation there special, linked to the presence of the water which the trees can reach through their roots. The riverside system is a real nest of biodiversity and a key element as a biological corridor connecting different ecosystems of Catalonia. They are true biological corridors that guarantee that the protected areas of Catalonia do not become islands in the midst of an urban or semi-urban system.
For this reason, the qualification of the river bank is extremely relevant to the ecological status of rivers. For Mediterranean rivers, we have designed an index which qualifies the riverside ecosystem with values from 0 to 100 (QBR index). This score is reached by considering four characteristics of the riverside system (each of them with a value of 25 points). The characteristics to be measured are:
• Coverage of the vegetation. Good coverage means there has been no alteration to impede the growth of the plant community on a continuing basis.
• Structure. This involves evaluating the structural complexity of the vegetation and it can be said that it is an indirect evaluation of the system's biodiversity.
• The potentiality of the system for housing a large variety of riverside trees, a measure of the system's complexity which must be weighted for each different geomorphological type of river. This includes a measure of naturalness according to whether the species found be autochthonous or «imported».
• The permanent alteration of the course of the river by Man, evaluating the presence of infrastructures in the stretch studied.
A detailed explanation of the way this index is calculated and applied to the Llobregat, Foix, Tordera and Besòs can be found in other publications (see bibliography). According to the index value, we have five grades of quality, which are:
• Unaltered, very good quality, natural state:  values > 95
• Beginnings of alteration, good quality: 75-90
• Considerable alteration, fair quality: 55-70
• Serious degradation, poor quality: 30-50
• Extreme degradation, abysmal quality:  values <35
Using the data from studies carried out by the Ecology Department for the Department of the Environment of the Provincial Council of Barcelona, the situation of the banks of the four rivers mentioned can be evaluated. As can be seen from table 3, the situation of the woodlands on the banks of the rivers studied is generally poor as almost 60% of the places visited have a very poor or abysmal QBR value and only 7% can be qualified as being in a natural state. Figure 2 shows a map with the QBR value for the same points in which the biological quality was studied and as you can see, the lower parts are in an abysmal state with regard to riverside woodland (again shown in red and orange). However, in some parts the values are relatively low. Riverside degradation has different causes: the development of river banks, aggregate extraction, intensive stockrearing near the river or excessive frequentation. On occasion, the Water Treatment Agency has even built its collectors in the middle of a river, destroying its riverside ecosystem. On other occasions, the public administration itself (in particular the Water Agency) has made regeneration impossible in the river banks through channelling or river-cleaning operations to avoid the problem of flooding. This is because they consider that the trees might block bridges and therefore it is better to chop them down (however, no one considers that the bridges could be to blame because they are not well built). The conservation of rivers as ecosystems requires the riverside system to be in a good state of health and therefore it should be taken into account when defining the ecological status of rivers.

The ecological status of Mediterranean rivers

Measuring the ecological status of rivers requires an integrating index which defines the overall ecological quality of the aquatic ecosystem. The concept of ecological status has its origin in the framework Water Directive proposal of the European Commission 1997 (COM(97) 49 final. 1997) and is an administrative concept which includes earlier ideas typical of scientific literature, such as «ecosystem health» (Munawar) or «ecological integrity» (Karr). As we have said repeatedly, defining ecological status is one of the key elements in the 1997 Directive proposal and is therefore essential to water management in the coming century. The definition of ecological status can be found in the preamble to the Law on Water Regulation, Management and Taxation and the «Reform of the Water law». The Law says:
«5) Ecological status: an expression of the quality functioning of aquatic ecosystems associated with surface waters. It takes into account the physico-chemical nature of water and sediments, the characteristics of water flow and the physical structure of the mass of water, but centres on the condition of the biological elements in the ecosystem».
This is the first time that a law reflects in such a clear manner the importance of its biological components in establishing the quality of a system. In the future, it will therefore be necessary to analyse the overall quality of the aquatic system, that is, to determine its ecological status. The efforts made to improve the quality of ecosystems (such as water treatment or riverbed recovery operations) or actions which have the opposite effect (incomplete water treatment, channelling, aggregate extraction etc.) will be valued whilst paying particular attention to the community of aquatic organisms, including the situation of the river banks.
It is obvious that the assessment of ecological status will be a relatively complex operation and will require teams of experts from several disciplines to carry it out. All the aquatic communities (plants, invertebrates, fish, other vertebrates) and the river banks (vegetation, structure) must be studied and the key physico-chemical parameters must be identified and even the geomorphology of the river. The European Directive proposal itself has not yet developed a way to do this and it appears that it will leave each country to develop its own system, but it must be comparable to those of other countries.
A first approach to the problem could be to use an index of rapid characterisation, which takes different parts of the ecosystem into account. This is what we have done in the ECOBILL research group of the University of Barcelona, in collaboration with the Department of the Environment of the Provincial Council of Barcelona, the Besòs Basin Consortium, the SGABSA laboratory of Sant Joan Despí, the Association of Municipalities of the Penedès-Garraf and the Rectoria Vella Foundation of Sant Celoni. We have drawn up an integrated quality index of the quality of the fluvial ecosystem, which belongs to the family of rapid assessment water quality indices, as it assesses the ecological status of the system quickly and simply, using two attributes of the area sampled:
• The FBILL biological quality index, based on macroinvertebrates.
• The QBR index, which assess the conservation status of the river banks.
The method is simple: once the FBILL and the QBR have been calculated, the ecological status is obtained from the value of both indices, as shown in Table 4. With this table, we can establish five levels of ecological status for the river, in accordance with the overall situation of the biological quality of the water and the characteristics of the river banks.
In the case of the rivers Tordera, Besòs, Llobregat and Foix, the overall data of their ecological status in 1998 can be found in Table 5. As you can see, of the 81 points evaluated in the four rivers, 42 (more than half) have a poor or abysmal ecological status and only 13 are considered as being in their natural state. They are, above all, in the headwaters of the Llobregat and the Foix and those stretches of the Besòs and the Tordera, which are within the Montseny Nature Reserve. Those in the most critical condition are at the lower ends of all the rivers, due to both the degradation of the banks and the quality of the water, which is still not properly treated or affected by flow bypasses or due to lack of dilution.
Figure 3 contains a summary of the ecological status of the four rivers, according to data gathered so far where, in addition to the biological characteristics of the water and the river banks, we have considered some physico-chemical parameters (such as ammonium or nutrients). We have defined areas which show the areas in an abysmal state (red), very poor (orange) poor (yellow), fair (green) and good (blue) and which reflects the situation of the four rivers studied, which are those with greatest pollution problems. Mediterranean rivers with a low volume of flow and high human populations, which are not valued as ecosystems, are very difficult to restore. So far, we have not managed to do it, but we must keep working to arrive at a situation in which we can boast live rivers.
We must remembered that this evaluation does not include other characteristics of rivers which should be measured in the future such as the fish population and the presence of species «imported» into rivers, such as «American» crabs, which could cause some points of good or fair quality to become worse.

Water as a resource, supply management or ecosystemic strategy?

The deficient ecological status of most Mediterranean rivers has several causes. One of the most important is the intense exploitation of resources to supply the population, for watering or to produce electricity (particularly important is the effect of mini power stations). As a consequence, some rivers dry up completely or are extremely low. The problem is mostly due to the enormous consumption of water in coastal and industrial areas of Catalonia, particularly the large population and industrial activity concentrated in the Barcelona region. The transfers carried out so far (from the Ter and the Ebro) have been undertaken to satisfy the thirst of cities and industries and those planned for the future are aimed at satisfying the deficits which it is estimated will be produced in the future. If the rivers dry up or are too low for excessive water collection, their ecological status will be very poor indeed as the river will have ceased to be (the moment it dried up) or will be unable to digest the pollution dumped in it. Do we really need so much water that it is impossible to improve the health of our ecosystems without another transfer of water to the Barcelona region?

Provisions for the future following the supply strategy
The water which supplies the Barcelona region comes from three different sources. Firstly, from underground wells, municipal or belonging to the water companies, surface water taken from the river Llobregat and finally from the river Ter. The whole system is connected by an extensive regional network supplying up to 4.5 million inhabitants. It can obtain average annual resources of almost 499 hm3, of which 173 hm3 come from underground sources, 100 hm3 taken from the Llobregat at Sant Joan Despí (Agbar) and the rest from the ATLL network (from the Llobregat at Abrera and the Ter at El Pasteral and made drinkable at Cardedeu). In the Barcelona region, consumption is currently on the increase in the region outside the city area (an increase of up to 29% in the Maresme in the period 92-95), whereas in the central area it is decreasing (up to 13.73% within the area of the Metropolitan Body between 1991 and 1996).
What will happen in the future? As ATLL (Aigües Ter Llobregat, a public company) supplies the water for the Barcelona region, by law, the company has drawn up a plan for the future up to the year 2025 based on the following premises:
• A rise in population of half a million people.
• An increase in consumption per capita.
• It is impossible to make any further savings.
• The water from the Llobregat is of poor quality and its consumption by the population must be reduced.
• Underground resources are over-exploited and the consumption of water from wells must therefore be reduced.
• The ecological flow of the Ter and the Llobregat must be increased to the sea.
This one draws the conclusion that additional resources must be brought in, as can be deduced from Table 5, based on ATLL studies published in 1999. This table describes three scenarios, the first (2025a) involves reducing the over-exploitation of aquifers continuing with potabilization at Sant Joan Despí and increasing consumption due to population growth. In the second (2025b), growth is maintained as in the previous case and, in addition, potabilization no longer takes place at Sant Joan Despí due to lack of water quality. Finally, the third scenario (2025c) plans the restraint of consumption whilst reducing the exploitation of wells and eliminating water catchment at Sant Joan Despí due to poor quality.  In all cases, the conclusion is that more water is required, as are additional resources. In short, we need another water transfer. The values were the basis for requesting a transfer of water from the Roina to Catalonia at a rate of between 10 and 15 m3/sec.

Controlling demand and the possibilities of alternative management
The arguments for reducing the exploitation of wells, improving quality, guaranteeing supply or ensuring ecological flows seem perfectly reasonable and we might think that another transfer is necessary. But the figures fail to take into account considerations which could moderate consumption and it is not clear whether we can save water or re-use treated water for municipal or industrial purposes. We have carried out an alternative calculation of water consumption in the Barcelona area using a strategy of sustainability or ecosystemic management (Table 6). This is based on:
• Sustainable exploitation of underground resources, accepting, as ATLL suggests, a reduction in exploitation from 173 to 92 hm3/year, although this figure, which is based on a survey of water companies, requires further study.
• Industrial saving. According to the study commissioned by ATLL, an additional saving can be gained in industry of 20 Hm3/year, at the most. We accept this value as a minimum which we subtract from current industrial consumption (de 156 a 136 Hm3/any).
• Domestic saving. In this respect, data from a study carried out by ATLL Madrid evaluate this saving at 62 hm3/year, but considers it very difficult to achieve and it has not been taken into account in the final assessment. With regard to losses, it is calculated that the network has only a 10% real loss, thus making any further saving unviable. As in the ecosystemic strategy we set a value of 150 l/person/day, the saving and reduction of loss are already included in this value and for this reason we have not included them individually in Table 6.
• Quality. Eliminating the Baix Llobregat potabilization plant due to the high salinity of the water, is not a sustainable measure (resources consumed must be from one's own basin). Through taking relatively inexpensive action, salinity could be reduced to less than half (controlling contributions from the Fusteret gully at Súria and others from the (piles of) rubble at Sallent) a measure already proposed by Agbar themselves. We maintain 100 Hm3/year as a resource to be used in our alternative assessment in Table 6.
• Ecological flows. The question of ecological flow is complex and in the rivers Llobregat and Ter it cannot be separated from the presence of mini power stations which divert the course. The 3 m3/sec, currently envisaged by legislation, which ought to flow in the lower Ter would give the river an acceptable ecological status were it not for the mini power stations that divert the flow. This problem must be solved by regulating the extractions of these mini power stations and setting a flow of compensation into the river for each stretch. In the case of the Llobregat, furthermore, water from the Prat treatment plant could be used as an ecological flow in its final stretch, as far upstream as Sant Boi. We, therefore, do not consider additional resources necessary for the ecological flow of the two rivers in our assessment in Table 6.
• Increase in consumption by the population. If we suppose that the population will increase by half a million and that each inhabitant has a domestic consumption of 261 litres per day, the amount of water necessary will be 636 hm3/year (Tables 5 and 6). However, with a more realistic estimate real population growth (for example 4.6 million) and a responsible consumption of 150 l/person/day urban demand would be reduced to 252 hm3/year, which is a considerable difference.
• Re-use. ATLL evaluates this at 34 hm3/year at the most, whereas the Water Treatment Agency in its annual report for 1997 planned the re-use of 283 hm3/year. If the 15% of water used by municipal services were reclaimed water, this would allow a saving of 37 hm3/year. We will use this figure in our calculations as a possible minimum.
With all these alternative calculations carried out in Table 6, where comparison is made between the real situation derived from the ATLL study, the situation forecast by ATLL for 2025 should maximum demand be met (that is, a large supply) and the ecosystemic strategy, derived from considerations in the previous sections, one might conclude that no additional resources are necessary if water management strategy is changed in Catalonia.

Towards a new water management model in Catalonia

The sustainability and rational use of water required by the new Catalan Water Law, involves solving far more complex problems than mere addition and subtraction of resources or building water treatment plants or levying water taxes. Some of them are already here amongst us, such as combating the scarcity of resources, pollution by organic micropollutants or mini power stations which do not respect flows of compensation (also called ecological flows). Others still have not had the importance attached to them that they deserve, such as the presence of invasive exotic species such as the «American» crab, jeopardise the ecological status of our rivers. Finally, sustainablility can be seen as threatened by future dangers, the effects of which we still do not know, such as climatic changes.
Water management in Catalonia must be integrated, directed at maintaining and improving the economic status of our aquatic ecosystems and requires a change of mentality and a different investment policy from the one being implemented at the moment, which centres on merely building collectors, treatment plants or water supplies. This is what we expect of the Catalan Water Agency (CWA) which must develop the Law on Water Regulation, Management and Taxation.
The bottlenecks we have identified, which could hinder the regeneration of the ecological status of our rivers, lakes, reservoirs, aquifers and marshes, can be summarised in a decalogue, and should be solved at the beginning of the next century:
1. Integration of the whole water cycle, priority objective of the CWA. In the decentralisation envisaged in this law (the setting up of the LWB, Local Water Bodies), controlling demand must be a key issue.
2. A very active and decisive policy on the use of alternative resources, such as reclaimed water from treatment plants or the desalination of salt water from coastal aquifers.
3. Changes in the design and construction of collectors and water treatment plants. For the former, we request more respect for existing river banks in cases where the collector must necessarily pass through the river bed or bank, or at least in its later restoration. The design of water treatment plants must take into account the volume of flow in the receiving medium, particularly in Mediterranean rivers.
4. The consideration of ammonium as a key element in the recovery of life in rivers and the drawing up of a plan of action for its immediate reduction in treatment plants with values exceeding 1 ppm on exit, if the river does not dilute the water from the plant in a proportion of at least 10 to 1. A study must be made of the problem of organic micropollutants and their effect on food chains.
5. An in-depth study of the salt remaining in rivers, which comes from industrial and urban waters, and can jeopardise the future regeneration of the fauna and flora of many rivers where treatment plants are being built.
6. Precise measuring of eutrophication levels and action to reduce them. This will require tertiary treatment in plants and good agricultural practice, along with solving the problem of the excess of manure.
7. A definitive solution to the problem of flows of compensation in mini hydroelectric power stations. Along many of our rivers mini power stations divert the course of the river and cause many stretches to dry up. In the upper Ter, there are 45 and 82% of the river is affected. The Cardener has 25 mini power stations and the Llobregat 55. In the case of the Llobregat, the first is 50 metres from its source and the second 100 metres away, diverting its course 15 Km and taking most of its volume of flow for most of the year as excessive diversions have been authorised. A flow of compensation must be set for each river and stretch, as programmes such as Aigües Vives (Living Water) 1999 are inadequate for minimising the effects of the lower volume of flow in the summer.
8. A detailed study of the problem of «imported» species (the «American» crab, fish) and their effects on ecosystems. This also involves the complete revision of fishing management, which nowadays is aimed more at maintaining weekend «preserve-farms» than the communities typical of Catalan ecosystems.
9. A regeneration programme for river banks suffering from degradation, which includes the control of grazing cattle (particularly in the lower areas) and a change in the freshet protection system.
10. The establishment of a system to control ecological status which allows the health of aquatic ecosystems to be assessed through the study of communities of organisms. In the case of rivers, the use of biological indices and the conservation status of their banks can be extremely helpful.
This decalogue (to which we could no doubt add many more concepts) will not be achieved unless the public is made aware enough to recognise that they are living in a Mediterranean country where water is scarce and leisure activities are not confined to the golf course. A programme of environmental education, which helps people to stop ignoring rivers, is essential to make the changes necessary for ecosystemic management.
Let us hope that the Catalan Water Agency starts as it means to go on and that we soon have a different water management model in Catalonia, where matters of ecosystem conservation and regeneration are as important as the economic aspects or the collection of the resource.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Acknowledgements. To my fellow members of the Ecobill team of the Ecology Dept. of the University of Barcelona (A. Munné, C. Solà, N. Bonada, M. Rieradevall), without whom work on the ecological status of rivers could not have been carried out. To the Department of the Environment of the Provincial Council of Barcelona for the push and support they have given us since 1994 to monitor the ecological quality of the rivers in the province of Barcelona. To the Consortium for the Defence of the River Besòs, the SGABSA laboratory at Sant Joan Despí and their River Police team, to the Inter-county Association of the Penedès-Garraf and the Rectoria Vella Foundation of Sant Celoni for collaborating in our work on rivers in the province of Barcelona. The data on water treatment I obtained from the Agency thanks to my being a member of its Board of Directors representing Depana (Natural Heritage Defence League). Data on water supply in the Barcelona region were obtained from meetings with the Committee studying water supply in Barcelona, of which I was a member, and I especially wish to thank Mr Robert Vergés, the Secretary, for his help •
 

Bibliography

• ATLL, 1999. L’abastament d’aigua a les comarques de l’entorn de Barcelona. Aigües Ter-Llobregat, 96 pàgs.
• JUNTA DE SANEJAMENT. 1998. Memòria d’activitats. 1997. Generalitat de Catalunya. Dept. Medi Ambient. 104 pàgs.
• JUNTA DE SANEJAMENT 1999. Informe de les depuradores en servei. Any 1998. Generalitat de Catalunya. Dept. Medi ambient. 55 pàgs-
• MUNNÉ, A. SOLA, C. RIERADEVALL, M & PRAT, N.;. 1998 Index QBR. Métode per a l’avaluació de la qualitat dels ecosistemes de ribera.. Estudis de la qualitat ecològica dels rius, 4, 28 pp.  Area Medi Ambient, Diputació de Barcelona
• PRAT, N. 1996 Planificar l’aigua; oblidar-se de la vida. P 15-30. In: Ecologia i territori a Catalunya. Acció Ecologista. Publicacions UAB.
• PRAT, N. 1997 Retos para la conservación de los ríos. Ecosistemas, 20/21:42-47.
• PRAT, N.; RIERADEVALL, M. ; MUNNÉ, A. SOLA, C. & CHACON, G. 1997 La qualitat ecològica de les aigües del Besòs i el Llobregat Informe 1996. Els cabals del riu Congost. Estudis de la qualitat ecològica dels rius, 2, 153 pp. Area Medi Ambient, Diputació de Barcelona .
• PRAT, N; MUNNÉ, A. BONADA, N. SOLA, C., CHACON, G. & RIERADEVALL, M. En premsa.  La qualitat ecològica de les aigües del rius Foix, Tordera, Besòs i el Llobregat Informe 1998. Estudis de la qualitat ecològica dels rius, 6,. Area Medi Ambient, Diputació de Barcelona .
 

Infrastructures and resources. Do we need water from the Rhone?

Jesus Carrera.

ETSE Camins, Canals i Ports, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Transferring water from the Rhone is a technically reasonable solution for guaranteeing a water supply to the area of Barcelona, although its cost is excessive. Even so, it would remove any incentive for the application of integrated management policies, which would be in detriment to the technological development of the region's industry. For this reason and having analysed the water resources and the infrastructure already existing in Catalonia, the author is in favour of not going ahead with it.
 

This article deals with water and, more specifically, the water supply in and around Barcelona. The subject is complex, not only because of the scientific or technical questions of which there are quite a lot, but also because of the administrative, social and political aspects. The fact is that the water situation is a multidimensional puzzle where each piece fits in with the rest in ways that are not always evident. The complexity arises in part from the very nature of water. As a physical resource, water has to do with disciplines that range from microbiology and chemistry to geology and civil engineering. From a broader perspective, water management is intimately linked with aspects that are so vastly different such as population growth, the legal structure and quality of life (and not just human life).
This complexity leads to people having deep-rooted convictions about what is a burning issue. This isn't something that is unique to Catalunya. People in Aragón and Valencia are just as emotional about it as we are here. Neither is it a Mediterranean feature. Here in Tucson (Arizona), where I'm writing from, there's an extremely heated debate going on about whether or not to artificially recharge the aquifer with water conveyed from the R. Colorado (something which I feel really proud about because nothing relating to my research has ever played a role that's been so important!). They're going to carry out a referendum in a couple of weeks.
Within this context of complexity, deep-rooted convictions, emotional build-up and obscure vested interests, the aim of this article is to briefly discuss the present situation of the water supply in Barcelona, its possible evolution in the future and the alternatives for dealing with the problems. Having stated that, the scope of the discussion obviously has to be fairly narrow.
First of all, there's the legal framework. The constitution stipulates that the State has full powers in matters of hydrological planning and it favours management by hydrographic basins. The Generalitat has exclusive powers over river basins that lie totally within the whole of Catalunya except for the Ebro basin (and a small part of the Xúquer basin). Within this region, the situation is also complex because power is divided between all of the different Ministries (I don't know if the Ministries of Education, Presidency or Culture have any powers here, but who knows). The ultimate responsibility for the supply to each household is down to the municipal councils. In the Barcelona area, however, this has been taken over by the Metropolitan Corporation.
Within this context, a public enterprise named «Aigües del Ter-Llobregat» (ATLL) was set up in 1990 to take over the functions of the Metropolitan Corporation and to supply water in general to all the municipalities that requested it. This means that ATLL provides them with the water and they (or a public utility company) distribute it to the houses. The area covered by ATLL has grown and now includes the Barcelonès, Maresme, Baix Llobregat, Alt Penedès, El Garraf, Vallès Oriental, Vallès Occidental and Anòia districts. This will be referred to as the ATLL or Barcelona area and it defines the geographical scope of this article. To be able to cover the demand for water in this area, ATLL has proposed the construction of a conveyance scheme to bring water from the River Rhone. An Advisory Scientific Committee was set up to advise the ATLL. The following is my personal opinion, which is the result mostly of the Committee debates, together with additional jobs that I've been involved in and the perspective gained from seeing how the people here in Arizona have been quarrelling over similar problems.

Present situation

The state of any water supply is defined by the demand, the available resources and the quality. Following is a brief review of these subjects within the scope of the ATLL.

Demand
The population of the area is 4.4 million inhabitants that creates a demand of around 500 hm3/year (15.8m3/s). Most of this demand (69%) is domestic and public, with the rest being industrial (31%). These data imply an average provision of 112 m3/inhabitant/year (308 litres/inhab./day), of which 77 m3/inhab./day (205 litres/inhab./day) correspond to urban demand (excluding industrial demand).
As a point of reference, average domestic demand for the world as a whole is 52 m3/inhab./year (an estimate for 1987) while in Europe it is 87 m3/inhab./year (1995). The provisions are highly variable, however, and do not seem to bear any relationship with the level of economic development. Provisions in Germany and the United Kingdom are 64 and 41 m3/inhab./year, respectively, while in France and Spain, they are 106 and 93 m3/inhab./year. Neither does there seem to be a close relationship with climate. In Greece, the figure is 42 m3/inhab./year and in Iceland 197. This variability probably reflects to different degrees the criteria used for measurement. In fact, according to the Hydrological Plan for the river basins that lie totally within the whole of Catalunya, the domestic provision in these basins is 110 m3/inhab./year (50% higher than the Barcelona area which contains 80% of the population). This disparity reflects the fact that demand in the city of Barcelona is lower. The criteria for calculation are not homogenous, however. In any case, it seems clear that demand within the scope of the study is neither excessively high nor low.
The overall demand on the regional network has remained relatively stationary in recent years. It went down slowly from 341 hm3 in 1991 to 305 hm3 in 1996 and has gone up again in the last two years. There is hardly any change throughout the year either. Maximum demand occurs during July, when it is 15% higher than the annual mean.

Available resources
To find out if there is enough water, it is necessary to compare the available resources with demand. The first question, however, is within what area should the resources be taken into account. Limiting this to the resources generated within the metropolitan area itself, it is obvious that there is not enough (at present, around 193 hm3/year for the aquifer within the area). This would require almost all of the Besòs and Llobregat rivers to satisfy the demand. This would necessitate a lot of new water conveyance schemes, although at the present time this would appear to be out of the question. For this reason, Barcelona has been conveying water from the River Ter (around 200 hm3 annually) and it is why the river basins that lie totally within Catalunya are taken as the initial area of reference. According to the Hydrological Plan, there is a demand within this area for 1302 hm3 while available resources are 1587 hm3. That is to say that in the medium term and taking into consideration all of the river basins lying totally within Catalunya, there is enough water. That doesn't say much, because it's possible that demand is inflated and that resources may have decreased. Moreover, the fact that the Muga has a lot of water doesn’t say much concerning the situation in the Metropolitan area.
In real terms, the metropolitan area obtains its resources from the sources shown in table 1.
In essence, 200 hm3 came from the River Ter, 106 from the Llobregat and 193 from different aquifers in 1994. This is sometimes said to be an under-use of groundwater (of the European countries, only Norway makes use of a smaller proportion of groundwater supplies). It should be mentioned, however, that there are not many aquifers here. I'll come back to this point later on.
After all this discussion, it still hasn't been defined whether there is or there isn't enough water. In the medium term, there are sufficient available resources (the Llobregat, aquifers and conveyance from the Ter). The question is: what happens if there's a drought? In evaluating whether the available volume is sufficient, the water supply services use the guarantee concept which is the degree to which the demand for water can be met by the supply. This is normally expressed in terms of the probability of failure.
Calculating the guarantee is not an immediate process because variations in time and space of both resources and demand need to be taken into consideration. Moreover, the state of the resources (and particularly the reservoirs) depends on the operational regulations (when and how much to open the sluice gates) and it is not always easy to sum these up. Numerical modelling is thus necessary to calculate the guarantee where the operation itself, the demand, the geometry of the regional distribution system, the input of water into the reservoirs and the operational regulations of the whole system are included. Calculating the guarantee would be precise if all of these aspects could accurately be reproduced in the model. As all this is impossible, the calculation of the guarantee is always an approximation.
The model prepared for ATLL to simulate its supply system is highly detailed. It should be born in mind, however, that the flexibility of the real system cannot be reproduced. For example, there has been a significant increase in pumping from wells in the Baix Llobregat during the last year as a result of the drought. This kind of operation is not reflected in the model, as a result of which it's likely that the model may have gone wrong when in fact water has continued to be supplied. In any case, the model is considered to be adequate as a means of responding in an approximate way to the questions that are posed.
ATLL has used this model to calculate the supply guarantee for the Barcelona area and has reached the following conclusions. Firstly, that under the present conditions, a failure occurs in 10% of the years (that is, demand cannot be satisfied every one in 10 years), even though 80% of the demand for water can be met during 99% of the months. It may be surprizing that the model gives failures when the general idea is that in practice, restrictions have never occurred. This result reflects the fact already referred to that the real system is more flexible than the model (one should remember that changes in the state of the reservoirs is not included in the model). In any case, changes in the state of the reservoirs, which are practically totally emptied every 5-10 years, gives a good reflection of the real situation and demonstrates the reliability of the model.
The evaluation of these results is subjective, but the fact that there are failures every 10 years cannot be considered satisfactory. Restrictions negatively affect tourism, industry, services and, worst of all, the overall impression given by a country. An area such as Barcelona, with over 4 million inhabitants and important growth expectations will not be able to face the 21st century without more security in terms of its water supply.
Another interesting conclusion from the model is that, to a great degree, the guarantee fails because of the need to maintain the minimum volume for hydroelectric energy production downstream from the reservoirs. On the other hand, demand should be reduced under the present conditions or there should be an additional provision of around 60 hm3/year (2 m3/s) to achieve a reasonable level of guarantee.

The quality of water and the environment
Despite the difficulties in supplying all of the demand for water, I personally consider that the most serious problem in the Barcelona area is not the quantity but more the quality. Of the three sources of water, both the Ter and groundwater sources are good but that originating from the Llobregat is bad. Treatment of the Llobregat water means that it is acceptable, but the water supply has a bad odour and taste.
The difference in quality between the water from the Ter and the Llobregat has created grievances due to the comparative inequalities between those who receive water from the Ter, which can be cooked with and has no unpleasant taste, and those who receive water from the Llobregat and have become accustomed to cook with and drink bottled water.
It should be added here that man is the origin of the problems with the water from the Llobregat (and not nature or the hydrogeology, as some would like to insist). The problems with the taste are caused by high levels of electrical conductivity and concentrations of chlorides, magnesium, sodium and potassium. The origin of these substances is the brines from mining waste in the Bages area. The second problem with the quality of the water from the Llobregat has to do with the sporadic spillage of toxic waste that compels almost permanent controls to be made of the source of water supply from the river and sometimes to it being closed.
The environmental quality of the rivers is bad. On the one hand, the volume in the lower reaches of the rivers is insufficient. This, for example, results in the River Llobregat not carrying not reaching the sea for the most part of the time due to lack of water. It also causes a deficiency of dilution at the outlets of waste water treatment plant. As a result, the levels of oxygen in many places are too low and those of non-desirable substances (for example, ammonia) too high. All of this causes a loss of diversity and the biological impoverishment of the rivers. It also contributes to the fact that the rivers give off unpleasant odours and that their value to society gets eroded more and more. This closes the cycle of degradation. The lack of a cure leads to the degradation of the river banks which leads to further deterioration of the river and further loss of appreciation. The fact is that the ecological, social and landscape values of rivers (especially the Llobregat) have disappeared, particularly in the lower reaches.
The situation isn't as bad as in other places, but it can't be described as being desirable. The fact is that concessions, especially to the small power stations, have left certain stretches of the rivers almost dry.

Future developments

The present situation is unsatisfactory but it could still get worse. Conclusions based on studies carried out by ATLL are that demand will increase and that the degradation of the quality of the existing resources will cause the use of some of these to be abandoned. The supply guarantee will diminish as a result. All of this will happen if nothing is done.
According to ATLL, the increase in demand will come about as the result of both the increase in population and per capita consumption. ATLL anticipates the population within its area to reach around five million inhabitants by the year 2025. This estimate is highly dubious. It seems probable that, in the short term, the population will not vary much. In the long term, however, a considerable increase in the population as a result of the increase in the birth rate, immigration and life expectancy cannot be ruled out. Neither can it be ruled out that people will live further and further away from the metropolitan area so that the population within that area will remain stable. The fact is that, at the present time, large metropolitan areas only appear to be growing in the Third World.
Per capita consumption may increase as the result of the trend towards living outside of the large cities and the construction of second homes. It is possible, however, that holiday homes get built beyond the limits of the area and that the increase in environmental education ends up limiting consumption. The consumption of 129 m3/inhab./year estimated by ATLL is thus highly dubious.
The result of this amount for the anticipated population gives an overall demand of 636 hm3/year (137 hm3/year more than at present). The advisory scientific committee considered this forecast to be excessive and that it was probable that this figure would not be reached. It should be said, however, that it is not totally absurd and that it should not be ruled out.
According to ATLL, things will get even worse because they foresee that it will be necessary to curb the pumping of groundwater by around 81 hm3/year for fear of contamination. This means that, in the long term, only 92 hm3/year will be covered by the local authority resources (which at present are 173 hm3/year). The scientific committee criticized this estimate due to the lack of justification. At any rate, these 81 hm3/any, added to the 137 foreseen by the increase in demand, give an increase of 218 hm3/year in demand on the regional systems.
Another aspect to bear in mind in water resource planning is climatic change. A large number of changes are occurring at the global scale as a result of human activities (diminishing of the ozone layer, the increase in CO2, NOx, SO2 and concentrations of other elements). The energy balance of the Earth is changing as a result, giving rise in turn to changes in the climatic regime. The uncertainty of the effect that some of the observed changes will have, together with the fact that climate is a highly unstable force, means that it is difficult to say what type of climatic change is to be expected. However, some things remain clear. There will be an increase in temperature. This will cause a decrease in precipitation in the form of snow and in the surface area of permanent snow in the Alps. One of the initial consequences, which is relevant for the matter in hand, is that towards the end of the coming century, the process of regulation afforded by the Alpine glaciers will have disappeared. This means that during summers that are dry, the Alpine rivers (including the Rhone) will carry much less water than at present.
Another consequence of the increase in temperature will be the increase in evaporation and transpiration (in fact, the increase is the result of increased radiation that leads in turn to an increase in the temperature). It is to be expected that this produces a certain amount of acceleration within the hydrological cycle because the increase in evaporation will cause rainfall to increase, etc. This is all at the global level. In reference to the area under discussion, we still don't know. In general, however, it's probable that this all will bring about an increase in rainfall in winter and soil dryness during the summer.
A summary of the discussion on climatic change is that: (1) it will occur; (2) we still don't know how it's going to affect us; and (3) contrary to what has been said, there is no evidence to suggest that there will be less water in the rivers in the area in question than now. Even so, it is obviously important to be on guard.

Water conveyance

Given that the present situation is unsatisfactory and that everything leads one to believe that things will get worse, ATLL proposed the advantages of bringing water from other river basins. ATLL has proposed two possibilities which are basically the conveyance of water from the Ebro and Rhone rivers. A summary of the basic features is given in Table 2 and the route in Figure 4.
Of these two alternatives, the scientific committee unanimously chose the Rhone alternative for diverse reasons. The quality of the Rhone water is better than that of the Ebro. It is also more reliable. It is highly unlikely that there is a severe drought simultaneously in the river basins within Catalunya and those of the Rhone. Neither is it very likely that the climatic change will affect both places. Moreover, there appears to be greater willingness to dispose of water (fewer social conflicts) in the case of the Rhone than in the case of the Ebro. The cost of the two options is similar. The only advantage with the Ebro is its greater flexibility. Just the pipeline, which is much cheaper than that from the Rhone, could be laid, with investments for improving the guarantee factor being left for later on (the redemption of hydroelectric concessions, etc.).
It should be added that there are other possibilities. The most obvious is conveyance schemes that bring water from the Segre. This possibility, which was suggested over 30 years ago by Victoriano Muñoz, would probably provide cheaper and better quality water than that from the Ebro or the Rhone. The fact that it hasn't been considered by ATLL may be a reflection more of social or environmental difficulties as to technical ones.
Mention should also be made of the possibility of intermediate sized schemes. The water conveyance schemes discussed up until this point are of around 300 hm3. Schemes of around 30-60 hm3 would be possible at a much lower cost per unit. Of these, the continuation of the Ebro mini-conveyance scheme and the water conveyance scheme from Rialp to the River Cardoner are the two most outstanding projects.
All of these alternatives face social, legal or environmental difficulties. A discussion of this lies beyond the scope of this article and specific studies would be required. In any case, they do offer possibilities that should be considered, at least if serious thought is to be given to the possibilities of integrated management which is commented on in the next section. For the time being, however, focus is made on the Rhone scheme as this would appear to be better than the Ebro one.
The basic features of the water conveyance scheme are as follows.

The water conveyance scheme resolves the guarantee problem. The water supply to the Barcelona area would not be affected by drought. Even more important, the management of the scheme is very simple. Defining the international agreement, together with the financial considerations, introduces a certain degree of complexity although once built, the running is relatively straightforward and income would appear to be assured. This means that the operation has a low level of risk.

The Rhone conveyance scheme would bring about important changes in the quality of water in Barcelona. Still even more important would be the elimination of the grievances due to the comparative inequalities between the quality of different water supplies. It should be stressed, however, that there are no micropollutant data. This is important because their elimination is difficult, it will end up being compulsory and the concentrations may probably be high due to industrialisation in the Rhone basin.
The ironic situation could occur where types of treatment such as manofiltration or inverted osmosis have to be resorted to (the consideration of this type of treatment would make the conveyance scheme unnecessary). It is thus important to preclude any type of commitment until this point is clarified.

By starting the conveyance scheme, there would be less pressure on the rivers and the aquifers. This would enable improvements to be made to their environmental quality. Moreover, if the scheme is not considered to have any negative environmental impact, it can be concluded that the conveyance may well have positive effects. It should be emphasized, however, that these effects will not occur automatically. This is dealt with in a separate section.
The only inconvenience with the Rhone scheme is the cost. Construction is estimated to cost around 150,000 Mpesetas. Considering that the Spanish part of the conveyance scheme would be made with a subsidy of 50%, the overhead costs for the scheme would be around 15,000 Mpesetas/year (or 50 pesetas/ m3 for the 300 hm3 anticipated per year). Variable costs would be around an additional 30 pesetas/m3. Of these, 10 pesetas correspond to pumping expenditure which is very low if one takes into consideration the total of 500 m (1.4 Kwh/m3) for pumping. Of this figure, around 150 correspond to the increase in height above sea level from the water outlet to the Cardedeu station and the rest to energy losses in the pipelines. It should be mentioned that these losses are very high (hydraulic gradient of 10/00) and that, from the perspective of sustainability, investment may need to be increased to reduce them.
The cost of 80 pesetas/m3, that would probably end up being slightly higher, is on top of treatment and distribution. Naturally, this doesn't necessarily imply a price increase of the same magnitude. If the cost were to be assumed by all the inhabitants in the area, the price increase would be around 50 pesetas/m3 (the result of dividing the total cost by the 500 hm3 of present demand). This is maybe reasonable but following recent experiences, it is doubtful that this could be introduced.

Notes on integrated management

When analyzing the construction proposal for the conveyance scheme, the Scientific Committee's most unanimous conclusion was that the solution to the problems of water supply in the Barcelona area should not be specific but that it should be approached from an integrated management perspective. This is not to say that the conveyance scheme is not necessary, but that it should be considered only as an additional element of management.
By integrated management is meant the joint use of surface waters and groundwater according to sustainable criteria. Sustainable is used here in a broad sense and includes the reestablishment of the functioning of natural systems as one of the criteria to be considered. As «integrated management» sounds fine but one doesn't really understand what it's really all about, it is maybe convenient to mention a couple of concepts.
A prime example of what should be avoided according to the criteria of integrated management is what is being proposed for countering nitrate pollution. The long-term progressive withdrawal of the resources that are at present in service does not appear to be adequate because contamination occurs bit by bit. This not only wastes the little water there is but also affects the river flora and fauna and the economy. This last point is clearly illustrated by the case of Barcelona where around 30 hm3/year are pumped to maintain the water table at a low level. Most of this water ends up in the sewers so that in addition to the cost of pumping one has to add the loss of water and cost of treatment.
A second idea for illustrating the concept of integrated management is that someone be responsible and that they feel responsible. Part of the present malfunctioning is due to the fact that nobody feels responsible. ATLL only feels responsible for the supply, the Water Board for the quality, the Public Sanitation Board for the treatment of waste water, the Ministry of Agriculture for irrigation, the Ministry of Health for the sanitary conditions of the supply and the Ministry of Industry for water saving by industry. Although each one does its job correctly (and some excellently), the truth is that none of them feels responsible for the fact that the municipal council of Sant Adrià has to spend nearly 10 million pesetas every year to pump 8 hm3/year to dry out an underground car park and which, as has already been stated in section 2.3, represents more than 10% of the present deficit, or that it has to close a supply well because too much fertilizer has been used. It must be said that the recent creation of the Catalan Water Authority (ACA) is one of the first steps in this direction.
As far as what remains is concerned, the following is an outline of the ideas that should be discussed within the context of integrated management.

Protection of the water sources
This line of action aims at improving water quality. It indirectly affects the guarantee factor because the reduction in contamination makes the abandoning of resources being exploited at the present time unnecessary. The two most obvious actions are, on the one hand, the collection of brine discharge from the saline debris on the Llobregat and Cardener rivers and, on the other, the establishment of protective measures for groundwater and the control of spillage into the rivers.
In relation to the brines, it is estimated that over 200,000 tons of salt are dissolved from the Bages saline debris every year. Around half is carried near to the sea by way of a brine collector built at the end of the 1980s. The functioning of this collector has lead to the reduction in Sant Joan Despí of the chloride content (from 734 mg/l [average 1980-89] to 382.8 [average 1990-97]), sodium (from 357 mg/l to 190 mg/l) and potassium (127 a 47). The volume of brine reaching the river can be reduced in two ways. Firstly, by tapping the outlets which still flow directly into the river and especially the Fusteret gully at Súria. Secondly, by impeding the entry of freshwater into the saline debris by diverting water entering by lateral flow (the case of Cardona) or by covering it over when this is possible. The question of eliminating the debris is not discussed here. Assuming that around 25% of total runoff could be tapped, the chloride concentration would remain at slightly over 200 mg/l, with sodium at 100 mg/l and potassium 30 mg/l. With just this action, the values of these parameters and total salinity would reach appropriate levels. The cost of the operation, redeemed over a 25-year period, would probably not exceed 0.2 pesetas/m3 per 500 hm3 of water consumed at the present time.
If a large proportion of freshwater could be prevented from getting converted into brine, more water could be passed through the collector. It would thus be feasible to make an inventory of the saline water entering the Llobregat from industry that is already treating its waste water. It is reasonable to consider that an important amount is concentrated in just a few industries and that it would be feasible to pass this through the collector as well. The conditions are not ripe, however, to be able to effectively evaluate this measure. It should be mentioned, however, that it has been done successfully on the River Besòs.
Protecting sources of groundwater is a customary action in all developed countries. More specifically, most European countries have set active policies in motion to reduce the amount of nitrates entering into aquifers. Nitrates mostly originate from the use of excessive doses of fertilizers. In addition to contaminating the water (continuous concentrations ver 50 mg/l can be dangerous for children and nursing mothers), they have the effect of inhibiting the process of natural degradation of many organic micropollutants that will have to be eliminated when the new European directive on water begins to be applied. It is possible that the only inhabitants receiving water of an approved quality similar to that which will be required in the future are those getting water from wells. The fact that these wells should be closed is therefore ironic. The reduction of nitrates requires the use of fertilizers to be cut down, a task which is not easy but one which must be faced sooner or later. As well as reducing the level of nitrates, it is also necessary to begin an active policy to define the limits of protection. In short, the protection of groundwater is costly in terms of management. The effect would be to improve the quality and, in an indirect way, the resources as well in such a way that the abandoning of wells would not be necessary.

Water regeneration and reuse
Under this title come activities orientated towards facilitating the use of treated waste water, together with treated waste water and available water of dubious quality (for example, water from mines or Barcelona groundwater).
The implementation of these policies requires the following specific actions:
1. The setting up of regeneration plant with sufficient capacity and levels of reliability to satisfy the needs of specific uses through the use of regenerated water which would free water that could be used for domestic consumption.
2. The setting up of spillage control programmes that do not imperil the subsequent reuse of the water.
3. The progressive and strategic introduction of secondary networks for the distribution of regenerated water.
4. The acquisition of experience in the exploitation and maintenance of these projects.
This option has been growing during recent years and is beginning to be customary in the United States in California, Florida and Arizona. The third step (the distribution of regenerated water) may well require large investments (pumping, pipelines, regulation  tanks) and operating costs that are comparable to the mains system. For this reason, this would require a significant thrust by the public administration right from the start (private enterprize could not take on the risk). For this reason, it is also important for this type of operation to be done within the context of integrated management that permits a certain degree of distribution of the costs amongst all of the users. The fact of the matter is that those who have tried it are content.
It is difficult to evaluate the impact of these measures. In the United States, between 10% and 30% of the total consumption is recycled in this way (it should be born in mind that under present conditions, the supply guarantee would be adequate if demand were to be reduced by 12%). Several operations that seem to be evident involve the refilling of irrigation channels in the Llobregat delta with regenerated water (this would free around 20 hm3/year in the River Llobregat at an additional cost of 5 pesetas/m3 (cost of tertiary treatment)) and the exploitation of groundwater resources under the city of Barcelona which are beginning to be used for watering parks and gardens.

Water-saving policies
Under this heading come different types of activity: environmental education, the use of low-energy consumption appliances, the reduction of losses in the distribution networks and pricing policies.

Environmental education. Consumer awareness campaigns are usually only reserved for initial action when droughts occur (as the ATLL did this spring). We feel that maintaining this flexibility is a good thing and that the capacity to save water should not be exhausted. The fact that these campaigns lead to reductions in consumption in the medium term suggests that the campaigns should be orientated more towards environmental education (what plants are more appropriate for the land, how much water is consumed, etc.) along the lines already mentioned for seeking out the involvement of the inhabitants, than to actual savings in themselves.
Cutting down losses min the distribution network. Losses in the distribution network are already low, at least in the city of Barcelona. Despite the fact that losses in other towns and cities in the area need to be analyzed, we feel that this line of action would not be too profitable. In fact, from an integrated management perspective, losses in the network do not involve water loss from the overall system. Neither are there very optimistic perspectives concerning the expectations of reducing consumption via equipment or fittings (taps, showers, cisterns). At any rate, the matter should be carefully studied and potentially innovative solutions sought after. For example, benefits could be given to the installation of low-energy consumption equipment by treating conventional equipment as a luxury (in Arizona, the use of low-energy consumption equipment is obligatory). A period of adaptation would obviously be required together with other measures so as not to cause detrimental effects on industry. What is obvious is that industry in Catalonia will end up being strengthened and more competitive if it is done here first.
To sum up, it's probable that the main effect of these measures will be to curb the growth in demand, more so than by not reducing it. At all events, the cost is relatively small.
Pricing policy. One of the most important elements in integrated management is the pricing policy. Domestic consumption is generally considered to be very rigid, in the sense that variations in the price of water do not lead to substantial changes in consumption. The LBAE questions this idea and mentions that elasticity may reach –0.57 (an increase of 1% in the price leads to a reduction in the demand of 0.57%). That means that price variations may have a certain effect on demand. The price of water in Barcelona is amongst the highest in Spain (but not in Europe) and any increase in the price should be done with care. What needs to be done is for the tariff structure to be varied.
At present, the constant part of what is paid is too high while the variable part is relatively small. The effect of this is that the average price per m3 goes down when consumption goes up. It stands to reason that this favours high consumption and in general the squandering of water. To avoid this, tariff structures are needed that have marginal (and average!) prices that increase with consumption. This, together with the tendency to curb the growth in demand of the small consumer, would be a good incentive for the large consumers (who pay high marginal prices) to consider the possibility of using regenerated water. The structure of the present tariff is justified on the basis that the constant part pays for the availability of the service (distribution network, meter, etc.). It could be argumented that these costs are not really constant but that they are higher for those who live in areas of low-density housing and who usually have higher levels of consumption. Independently of this, I believe that the justification for change should be based on the integrated management philosophy of rationalization.
Policies for directly increasing the supply guarantee
Under this heading are also included three types of measure: variations in the system of concessions to small power stations, increased rain water recharging and salinity reduction in low quality water.

Concessions to small power stations. As has already been mentioned in the discussion on the present situation, the supply guarantee is low partly because of the obligations to maintain a minimum volume for the small power stations downstream from the reservoirs. One way of improving the guarantee would be to vary the system of concessions so that there are fewer obstacles to reservoir operation. Within this operation, it would be necessary to revise the minimum volumes for ecological purposes.

Rainwater. The measures orientated at utilizing rainwater consist of protecting the recharging of aquifers. This is achieved by large artificial recharge reservoirs full of floodwater collected when rivers are in spate or via permanent collectors when a double drainage system exists (one for waste water and the other for storm water). Given that rain water has a very low salinity and that concentrations of contaminants are usually low enough for their elimination to be carried out via natural regeneration in the aquifers, these actions tend to improve the quality of the water and bring about a net increase in resources. An additional benefit is the reduction, albeit usually very small, in the maximum volume of floodwater downstream. These kinds of measures have a high cost, both in terms of investment and maintenance, and the benefits end up being so blurred that they only make sense within the context of integrated management. At all events, the investment could be slightly reduced if the actions were limited to newly urbanized areas, if they are related with regional planning (reservoirs in floodable areas) and if they are used as an extra tool for landscape architects (the recharging of reservoirs in parks). It is important to remember here that one of the conclusions in section 2 is that part of the anticipated growth in demand is attributable to migration away from the cities and the construction of second homes.

Desalination. If the previous options are not sufficient, waste water could always be desalinated (which is much cheaper than sea water). If the water coming out of a tertiary treatment plant is put through a process of inverse osmosis, the resulting water has a very low level of salinity and no micropollutants. That means that this would be even better than that resulting from the purification of the water from the Rhone. The present regulations, that would surely need to be revised, would not allow their direct inclusion in the system For this reason, it would need to go through a naturalization process in the aquifer. Although the committee does not know the exact cost of this, some figures can be given for guidance purposes. The cost of desalinating sea water by reverse osmosis in a plant capable of 60.000 m3/day (22 hm3/year) is, according to LBAE, around 72 pesetas/m3 (approximately 50 pesetas/m3 in operation with the rest redeemed at 5% over 15 years). Considering that this water does not require purification (which would remove around 30 pesetas/m3, enabling this price to be comparable with that of the water from the Rhone) and the transport surcharge is small, the resulting price would be under 45 pesetas/m3. These calculations are based on the desalination of sea water. The desalination of regenerated water would have a significantly lower cost (it could probably be done by using electrodialysis). It should be added that, under these conditions, the energy cost would be comparable to that of the water from the Rhone. Low-pressure reverse osmosis with a rejection rate of 35% (which would be poured directly into the sea) consumes 1 kwh. Experience with waste water is limited and companies here would become more competitive if they gained more experience. The desalination of brackish groundwater in the Canary Islands costs approximately 50 pesetas/m3 (which is a cost of only 20 pesetas/m3 above the present price). Osmosis technology has been perfectly tested out.
One last thought on desalination is that, given that the investment is relatively small, it would surely be profitable to build the installations and use them only in the case of drought.

Some final thoughts

Up to this point I have tried to be objective (if this is possible). In this final section, however, I'd like to add a few final reflections as a result of what has been said about this subject.
There is a kind of prejudice against water conveyance schemes, especially in conservationist circles. This prejudice is, in part, justifiable. Many conveyance schemes have been seriously mistaken (just take the particular example of the Aral Sea). In this case, however, I don't believe that the circumstances justify so much prejudice. The volume that would be taken is just a small fraction of the water flowing in the Rhone, it won't be put into rivers here but will go directly to the treatment plant and the water taken does not have very much salt in it.
The risk of radioactive contamination has been talked about. The truth of the matter is, however, that radioactivity is easy to measure and therefore to control. Under natural conditions, radioactivity in the Rhone is lower than in the Llobregat and, if there were any accident at any French nuclear power station, it would be very easy to close the tap at the source of water supply. In fact, from the point of view of water quality, one of the uncertainties that has to be resolved is the concentrations of micropollutants. If these are high, the project would surely have to be abandoned because desalination technology would probably be required to eliminate these contaminants. We imagine them to not be very high (of course, this would have to be verified).
It has also been said that the Rhone conveyance scheme is like building the Pyramids. I don't believe this. It is a very large construction project but it is coherent with the proposal. Like many public works, it is large scale and has an enormous budget but it is no more monumental than 150 kms. of motorway or a large port. In fact, if it is compared with other public investments, it doesn't appear disproportionate at all. The problem comes when it is compared to expenditure and the cost of education, universities, natural parks, technological innovation, social welfare, etc. But this is what always happens: the politicians like more investment than operating costs.
To sum up, the Rhone conveyance scheme is a good solution. The problems involve the cost and the fact that it resolves the Barcelona water supply too easily. What I mean is that if it's done, no one will ever remember the other problems. In relation to the cost, I think that this is excessive and that the policies of integrated management outlined in the previous section could resolve the problems of supply to the Barcelona area at a much lower cost. The question is whether there is the political will to do this.
Water policies have traditionally been the result of long discourses on equity. The truth of the matter is, however, that no one has ever really known what equity means. It certainly doesn't mean economic equity (that the beneficiaries pay) in order for subsidies to be sought after and usually acquired. Neither does it mean social equity because the beneficiaries are always just a handful and not those who have the least. Political equity would require that those who are affected are the ones that make the decisions, which is something that would never occur because the «national» interest are always over and above this. In short, it is only the «ecologists» who are concerned about inter-generational equity. To sum up, despite the fact that water policies based on long discourses bother me, I wouldn't know how to propose any alternative.
Having got to this point, I imagine that the reader must now be totally confused. If not, it means that you haven't been paying enough attention. I personally am confused. It stands to reason that the decision is not strictly rational, that ideological elements come into play and that everyone thus has a personal opinion. It would be unfair to those who have come this far, however, if I didn't share with them my personal evaluation that it would be better for the conveyance scheme to be not undertaken for the time being. Ironically, what tips the balance in my opinion are aspects that I haven't gone over much. I believe that integrated management would favour the technological development of green industry in Catalonia at a point in time when the future is ripe (for once, we wouldn't be jumping on the bandwagon of the rest of the Western world). I believe that opting for integrated management would enable the water systems in Catalonia to be cleaned up.
Up to this point I've said that integrated management and conveyance schemes are not exclusive options. In essence they're not. I doubt however whether the government would really opt for integrated management if the conveyance scheme went through. This means finding and getting the involvement of municipal councils, the inhabitants, public utility companies, the universities, ecological organizations, etc. Up until now, it hasn't been done. If the water conveyance scheme is built, this will be less urgent and it won't get done. For example, the universities and research centres in the ATLL area generate 1.1% of the world's science and technology related to water (measured in terms of the number of publications in recognized scientific journals). None of them has made any of the multiple studies carried out on the subject of the conveyance scheme.
It is from this perspective of great confidence in the capacity of people here that I think that it is better, for the time being, to not go ahead with the water conveyance scheme. If the policies carried out prove to be insufficient, then it will go ahead. If they are, however, which means to say that if they are sufficient, then we'll have saved 150,000 million pesetas or, as it will be then, around 1,000 million euros
 

The environmental taxation system and the new water culture

Enric Tello
Professor of Economic History, University of Barcelona

The environmental non-sustainability of particular policies could lead to socio-ecological conflicts, as shown by the water war (fiscal disobedience of different users in the Barcelona area). This war provides a firm basis for reflection on the taxes arising from water resources and the need for a change in this regard. A change which should take place in the line of the green-tax revolution and the strengthening of democracy.
 

The new law passed by the Parliament of Catalonia has put an end to the «the water war» in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. For eight years, an increasing number of families, which finally reached eighty thousand -that is, two hundred and fifty thousand people directly involved- refused to pay a series of taxes on their water bill, which they considered to be outrageous. In some towns, the number of customers who joined the campaign was 20% of the total, and in all the municipalities in the metropolitan area the average was 6% in 1997. In the city of Barcelona fewer than 2% took part, but in some towns percentages were high, for instance, Sant Feliu (23%), Sant Boi de Llobregat (20%), Badalona (17%), Santa Coloma de Gramanet (15%) and Gavà (12%).1
This protest was labelled irresponsible and inconsiderate of environmental values and has become just another one of many factors that are favouring an advance towards a new more sustainable water culture. Now is a good time to look back and recapitulate. How did a protest of such importance come about? Why did it take so long to solve the problem? What lessons can be learnt for the future development of the new environmental taxation system? Is it worth analysing it as an example of the complex ways, frequently unexpected and transgressive, by which environmental unsustainability becomes a socio-ecological conflict.

Why did the water war break out?

Graph and table no. 1 show the trigger: between 1990 and 1992 domestic water bills for the Barcelona metropolitan area increased by nearly 20% in real terms, not counting inflation. That meant that the bill was  close on  40% more expensive for the most habitual consumption:
But a trigger is not a cause. The socio-ecological origin of the problem can be found if we look into the reasons for that sudden increase. Those who studied their bill suspiciously soon discovered that it wasn't the company–AGBAR in most cases– whose tariff had increased, but the taxes levied by the administrations with competencies in the water cycle: the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, the Barcelona Metropolitan Municipal Authority, and the Barcelona City Council. It was neither an incomprehensible fit of tax collecting, nor had they got together to put up the price of water. If we look at their reasons, we come up against a case of exceeding environmental limits.
With the exception of the environmental waste management tax (TAMGREM), and possibly the sewerage tax charged by the Barcelona City Council3, most of the new water rate came from the transfer to the domestic consumers of the metropolitan area the new costs of catchment, pumping, channelling, potabilisation and treatment caused by a policy of constantly increasing supply, and by the need to «compensate» for the deterioration in quantity and quality of the water resources available in Catalonia's inland river basins.4 Between 1992 and 1998, the number of water treatment plants has gone from 90 and 53 under construction to 210 in operation, 48 underway and 39 planned, and 297 large treatment plants that will serve 2.8 million people in 2001. This has meant a sustained expense of some forty thousand million pesetas a year, half of which come from taxes or water treatment levies paid by consumers and the rest from subsidies or credits.5 This increase in economic costs, typical of a «mature water economy», is the result of a forced and inevitable internalization of ecological costs once the recommended environmental limits have been surpassed.

The dark side of the water war

In the Catalan inland basins half the water they contain is extracted on average for human use, and in the case of the Ebro, 59%. This far exceeds the  8% figure for the rest of world, 15% for Europe and even the l 41% average for all the river basins in Spain.6 Ramon Margalef recommends as a ceiling a «rule of a third»: a third for human use, another for the evapotranspiration of the vegetation that maintains primary continental production, and a third to return to the sea in rivers, and in surface and underground runoff.7 When the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, the Metropolitan Authority for Hydraulic Services and Waste Treatment, and a few Town Councils began to add taxes to the water bills like so many carriages on a train, they were only doing the usual thing: sharing costs. If the spreading of the population towards the outskirts if the city and the building of new industrial and housing estates, golf courses, second homes, hotels and parks increased the demand for water, the Authorities reacted by passing the cost on to the consumers they already had (instead of spreading the marginal cost over new demands, as recommended in the new guidelines of sustainable economy).
The European Environmental Agency defines four stages in the conception and application of environmental taxes. In the nineteen seventies, taxes mostly covered costs  and simply aimed at spreading the costs of  an environmental service between consumers. The need to legitimate new indirect taxes, in the face of the desperate need for income of public authorities in a state of anguish over the national debt, led to the definition of earmarked taxes (which can only be allocated to a specific end). In the eighties a new generation of incentive taxes was conceived, the main purpose of which was not to increase collection but rather to change the behaviour of companies and consumers by penalising those who caused most harm to the environment. In the nineties, a green tax reform is underway, which does not simply add on special taxes to have «extra» funds to devote to improving the environment, but brings about a decisive change in criteria and tax payers already in existence so that the encouraging or dissuasive effects, and the redistribution of the whole expense, points economic activity towards greater sustainability.
The various Catalan public administrations have so far been incapable of getting past the first stage, at least with regard to environmental taxation and the regulation of domestic water rates. Without rethinking the  fragmented management of the water cycle, without informing the citizens of the emergent environmental problems, or previously negotiating the possible alternatives with the social actors, they transferred the growing economic costs to the water bill. They failed to realise that their uncoordinated actions were the last straw, distorting an old «moral economy» which considers water a basic commodity which must be available to everyone. The result was «the water war», which showed that amongst the public that ancestral culture of the spring was still in force, a spring that even today still provides water for free in the town square.
After the sharp increases of 1991 and 1992 the conflict came to a standstill. The trickle of fiscal dissidents was growing daily. Their water supply could not be cut off as they were merely objecting to paying taxes they considered outrageous, or being charged in an improper fashion. Every quarter, they paid the water rate plus VAT into a current account opened by residents' associations, which soon contained thousands of millions of pesetas. Although the tax payers might accept it voluntarily as a tax-gathering method, they were not legally obliged to pay their taxes through a bill derived from a private contract between the consumer and the water board. The protest was outside the current framework of administration and rates. A solution could only be found within another.

From deadlock to negotiation

That other framework did not appear until seven years later when, after several failed attempts, negotiations between the Autonomous Government of Catalonia and the Confederation of Residents' Associations (CONFAVC) used three principles proclaimed in the new European Directive of 1997 as a starting point, and incorporated them into the draft version of the new law. These principles were: to integrate the management of the whole water cycle, that prices reflect all costs (full cost pricing), and that basic consumption be available to everyone.10 The integration of water cycle management into an Agency that co-ordinated with local bodies put an end to the piling of extra taxes on the final consumer's bill, something which was incomprehensible for any normal citizen. The new bill will feature a single levy to be paid to the Water Agency to finance all public infrastructure for water supply and treatment, as well as the regulated tariff paid to the company responsible for water potabilisation and distribution (municipal, or private such as AGBAR). The sum of the water rate and levy must include all water cycle management costs which it is decided, by democratic vote, shall be transferred to the domestic consumer.11 Other taxes which have no relation to water, such as municipal waste treatment (TAMGREM), must be processed separately.
The residents' associations set up the protest to ensure that water was reasonably priced. It is no coincidence that the outburst took place in one of the Spanish cities where water was most expensive, and whose citizens had not been subjected to any real restrictions due to drought.12 As usual, the expensiveness or cheapness depends on what we compare it to and on who does the campaign. A family consuming 144 m3 a year with one incoming wage equal to the average wage before tax in Catalonia, would spend 0.96% of its income on water in 1990 and 1% in 1999. A pensioner living alone, consuming 48 m3 and living on an average pension would spend 1.56% of his income on water in 1990 and 1.31% in 1999.13 At first sight these percentages seem tiny. However, they are the norm all over and variations hide slight differences.14 In absolute terms they mean paying thirty or forty thousand a year for the water consumption of an average family.
Is that a lot or a little? It depends on how much money you have, of course. But also on attitudes. The «moral economy « of water is interpreted in different ways depending on each person's situation and culture. In a survey of family budgets carried out in 1991, when the big increase took place, the average annual expense per consumer unit in the province of Barcelona was a million pesetas. Supposing that averages mean anything in these matters, the proportion allocated to «personal transport vehicles» was 116,632 pesetas a year: three times the water bill and eight times the amount allocated to public transport (13,979 pesetas). However, expenses for education were comparable to those for water (29,796 pesetas), whereas buying «books, newspapers and magazines» was allocated the same as public transport (13,411 pesetas a year).15 Every September, buying school books, uniforms and so on causes controversy. It does not appear particularly sensible to scorn a water expense that represents the same, or a larger, proportion of the family budget.16
Graph 1 shows that in the six or seven years of deadlock, and while the voices of protest against the «outrage» of the water bill could be heard from time to time in the streets of Barcelona, the residents' associations were silently approaching their objective: a return to the 1990 price plus the RPI accumulated. In the face of all the fuss, the authorities voted yearly increases of the water rates and taxes below the RPI. This undoubtedly helped to bring the opposing camps closer together. Nevertheless, agreement was only reached once both sides had begun to consider an aspect which was decisive for the new culture of sustainability: that water does not have one price, it has many. In fact it has as many process as it has types of consumption. Therein lies the key to the future.
The ever closer relationship between residents' associations and ecologist groups on several common platforms facilitated the inclusion in their demands of an essential point: reasonable prices should be for basic consumption of less than a hundred litres per person per day. Above this limit, they should increase more than proportionally, to encourage efficiency in intermediate uses and penalise excessive consumption. The progressive increase in price, depending on consumption, which relates the social equity of access to water with the environmental sustainability of resources, took centre stage in the discussion. This coincided with the arrival of the new European Directive which, along with full cost pricing, also declared that basic consumption should be reasonably priced. The two things would be contradictory unless the water rates  really were progressive.

The key to the future: from regressive prices to the progressive increase

Graph 2 shows that up to now the situation has been the complete opposite. Despite the existence of three consumption blocks with increasing rates, in fact each cubic metre of water is most expensive for the person who consumes the most.
This is the consequence of a standing charge for supply which in most cases amounts to almost half the water supply amount, and whose tax gathering method makes the overall quarterly bill even more regressive.
Such regression discourages saving. Any investment in more efficient systems (for instance a washing machine that uses less water, a system that re-uses water from the bath or the washing machine in the WC, rain butts, etc.) offers very slow returns. These devices can save a considerable amount of water throughout their working life, but very little in the way of money. The lower the consumption, the less worthwhile it is  investing in new appliances or water re-use systems.
The existence of such a high standing charge regardless of consumption has no serious economic justification,  and does the exact opposite of encouraging saving which is precisely what the new legislation on taxation and tariffs should do. It is usually justified by the existence of fixed costs for supply and treatment. If the argument refers to the need to recoup them on the revenue side, one must remember that fixed costs exist in any economic activity. The only difference between the water board and any other company that does not enjoy a «natural» monopoly is that it can always be sure to cover all its costs, fixed or variable, by interchanging the corresponding documentation with the authority the fixes the tariffs (the Barcelona Metropolitan Municipal Authority and the Prices Commission of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia).
The argument is more plausible from the point of view of equity between consumers: metres which register very low consumption (empty houses, second or third homes) should make a larger contribution than the bill for consumption for the maintenance of infrastructure of a specific size, regardless of whether consumption is regular or seasonal. But this problem can be solved by including the service charge in the first few cubic metres billed, up to an amount which is less than a person's basic consumption. Then the charge gives you the right to consume that amount, and only those who consume less will have to pay.
The very idea of a charge related to the number of taps in a household responds to the now obsolete concept of the mere repercussion of costs, and ignores two variables which are fundamental to the new sustainable management of the demand: the number of people who live in a household, and the fact that each of the appliances connected to those consumption points can provide their service using large or small amounts of water depending on their efficiency. With the tariff structure in force in 1990, a person living alone in Barcelona and consuming an average of 133.3 litres per day, paid 74% more for his water than four people consuming the same and sharing a home and metre. In 1999, the difference is less because over the decade the increases in charges have been less than the price of each consumption block (and the  tax structure was also modified). However, people living alone still paid 56% more for their water than a family of four.

Water cultures and reading the b