Conflicts over inter-basin water transfer are pitting regions against each other and the national government again. Disputes that will increase in the coming years because of climate change. Farmers in the Levante area of Spain need new sources of water for irrigation.
What is farmers’ reaction?
Fenacore, the umbrella organization of all Spanish irrigators, thinks that the use of desalinated and reclaimed water should only be a complement to conventional water resources in order to guarantee food supply in the future. Its president, Andrés del Campo, also argues that, in the face of climate change-induced water scarcity, what it is needed is an increase in water availability for irrigation to meet growing food needs.
The organization supports the use of treated waste water for agricultural irrigation, but believes that the European regulation will it make more difficult the export of agro-food products. For Fenacore, the problem does not lie in the requirement for higher water quality at the outlet of the treatment plant, but in its maintenance along the whole irrigation distribution network.
Mr del Campo points out that Spain had had legislation on this subject for 12 years. Moreover, he states that it is the European country with the highest volume of reused water (350-400 Hm3). In any case, Fenacore advocates the "polluter pays" principle so that the cost of treatment should be borne by the person who generates the wastewater and not by the farmer who irrigates with reclaimed water.
The Mar Menor crisis
The largest coastal saltwater lagoon in the Mediterranean suffers an environmental collapse that could have been avoided.