Case Study 1: Matarraña River Basin

euwareness spain Case Study 1: Matarraña River Basin Joan Subirats, Nuria Font and Meritxell Costejà 1 Case Study 1: Matarraña River Basin Joan Subirats Nuria Font Meritxell Costejà April 2002 Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) Departament de Ciencia Politica i de Dret Public Campus Universitari – Edifici B 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona) Spain Tel: +34.3.58.11767 Fax: +34.3.58.12439 Website: www.uab.es Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] EUWARENESS is a research project on European Water Regimes and the Notion of a Sustainable Status. Research institutes from six European countries (Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland) have been cooperating in this two year project (2000-2002). More information is available on www.euwareness.nl. The project is supported by the European Commission under the 5th Framework Programme, and co-ordinated by the University of Twente in the Netherlands. 2 Index Introduction 1. Case demarcation 2. Water uses and demands 3. Regulative system and de facto use rights 4. The actors 5. National and river basin regimes: main developments 6. The process: phases and transition towards integration 7. Dimensions of integration and regime change 8. Some interpretative lines 3 Introduction The Matarraña river case constitutes one of the two cases studies conducted by the Spanish team in the EUWARENESS project framework. In general terms, the case satisfies the main selection criteria agreed upon: Main selection criteria The Matarraña case study Rivalry between heterogeneous / √ The case presents high levels of homogeneous uses / users rivalry between heterogeneous and homogeneous users of water. Rivalries can be interpreted in territorial terms. Preference for cases where not √ Surface waters are considered as only public ownership but also public domain, but can be object of privative ownership of water privative uses: irrigation, population resources could be found. supply and cattle. Presence of transitions towards √ There are some signals of a transition integration during the last two towards integration (it crystallises in an decades (integration to be agreement reached in April 2000): considered as a case of success) Integration of the problem perception and objectives and integration of the actors in the policy network The demarcation of a case √ The Matarraña river is a tributary to should follow the hydrological the Ebro river and has an extension of 97 and geographical boundaries of Km. a water basin at a regional scale or with a tributary character The following sections will analyse the extent to which there are signals of transition towards an integrated regime. As a general point of departure, and considering the case study framework analysis, integration mostly relates to the governance rather than the regulative system and mainly takes into account: The problem perception and objectives (“development of a water vision for a river basin”) The actors in the policy network (“involvement of all actors having an interest in water services”) 4 1. Case demarcation The Matarraña river is tributary of the Ebro river in its right side. It is located in the northern east of Spain and flows through the Teruel and Zaragoza provinces (Aragón Autonomous Community), Tarragona (Catalonia) and Castellón (Valencian Country). The Matarraña basin has a total of 1,727 Km2 flowing through 97 km starting from its head (in Puertos de Beceite) and ending in the Ebro river. The Matarraña hidrographic net includes: the Matarraña river, the Pena river, the Ulldemó river, the Tastavins river and the Algás river (the latter is the main tributary and empties its waters into the point where the Matarraña flows into the Ebro river). There are two factors exogenous—both to the regulative system and the policy process—that are crucial in order to understand the developments at the Matarraña river basin: the climate patterns and the intra-basin diversity. Climate conditions Climate patterns considered both inter-annually and intra-annually are crucial in order to understand what is going on in the Matarraña river basin. Regarding interannual patterns, some raining cycles can be observed: five to ten year periods of scarce raining and draught are commonly followed by five to ten years periods of abundant raining. According to some data, the main climatic periods related to the Matarraña river along the last years, which are coincident with those at the national level, are the following ones: Climate periods 1977 – 1987 dry period 1987/88 – 1992/93 wet period 1993/94 – 1999/2000 dry period 2000 Æ wet period 5 Regarding intra-annual climate patterns, the Matarraña basin follows the typical Mediterranean regime, which is characterised by severe low water periods occurring from June to September. This may cause the breaking of the river continuity (the mean flow in July and August decreases 40% of the total flow), and there are two rainfall peaks in spring and autumn depending on the raining conditions. However, intra- annual raining irregularity may dramatically vary the mean river flow from one year to the next. In addition, there are important variations in the raining patterns within the river basin: the average raining on the head of the river basin is 600 mm per year, while it is lower than 300 mm at the end. Apart from that, dry conditions during the summer season become more intense in dry years due to the increasing demand of water for agriculture and population supply (Sostoa, 1996). Intra-basin diversity The Matarraña river basin includes twelve municipalities that make a population of 10,613 inhabitants. Beceite is the municipality located at the head of the river and La Portellada is the one located at its end, just before the Matarraña river tributes to the Ebro river. The distribution of population among the twelve municipalities is summarised in the following table: Population in the municipalities of the Matarraña river basin (1996) Population Beceite 654 Valderrobres 1,914 La Fresnada 435 Torre del Compte 189 Mazaleón 608 Maella 2,079 Fabara 1,261 Nonaspe 1,100 Fayón 392 Calaceite 1.238 Cretas 638 La Portellada 342 Total 10,613 Source: www.chebro.es 6 Even though the Matarraña river basin is neither too long nor too populated, the climatic, geographical, social and economic characteristics in different parts of the river basin are very different. And so the water uses and demands are. In general terms, three different areas can be distinguished along the river basin: the higher, the middle and the lower basin. The main municipalities located in the three areas are included in the following table: Higher basin Middle basin Lower basin Beceite Mazaleón Fabara Valderrobres Maella Nonaspe The higher river basin The Matarraña river is characterised by being narrow at its head and resembles a torrent or a stream. This area has lower needs of water than the rest of the river basin, both because users located at the higher river basin have traditionally had the right to use relatively more water than the rest of the river basin users, and because the extension of irrigated lands are much lower in the higher than in the middle and lower basins. In the mid sixties, peach crop —which requests high quantities of water— was timidly introduced in the higher basin, but in the seventies most crop lands were reconverted into cattle farms (and then water demands decreased). Along the nineties, rural tourism has become an important source of income in this area, but this does not seem to put too much pressure on the water issue. To sum up, the higher river basin does not have severe problems of water scarcity. However, it has been the destination of several regulation works that have been promoted by the Ebro river basin administration —the Confederación Hidrográfica del Ebro (CHE)— in order to secure water for the middle and lower river basins: the Pena water dam, that was constructed in 1930; the diversion tunnels, that were built in 1978; and the pumping project, that was installed in 1998. However, given the perceived lack of efficiency of these works, as well as their cost for the higher river basin (in terms of environmental impact, expropriations, economic cost, etc), actors located at the higher basin have increasingly rejected projects promoted by the CHE. 7 The middle river basin The Matarraña middle river basin has more water demands than the higher one. This is so because of two reasons. On the one hand, the two main villages in the middle river basin, that is Maella and Mazaleón, concentrate at about 47% of the irrigated land in the whole river basin. This is an important percentage, especially if we consider that irrigation consumes 90% of the total water needed in the Matarraña river basin. On the other hand, along the seventies and mid eighties, peach crop, which needs high quantities of water, was introduced in the middle river basin and familiar production became industrialised. Nowadays, most peach crops are concentrated in the middle river basin. For instance, the municipality of Maella produces around 5.5 million Kg. fruit every year, out of a total of 12 million in the whole river basin. The extension of fruit crop along the middle river basin has increased water demands in this area over the last years and, consequently, the area has become more vulnerable to scarcity problems, especially in dry years. The concentration of most irrigation lands in the middle river basin has had the effect of making users from the middle river basin being dominant in the institutions representing users in the river basin, namely the Central Union of Irrigation Communities in the Matarraña river. As they have a dominant position in the river basin, they have a higher influence in the decisions taken by the Central Union in order to face scarcity problems.

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