Case Study 1: Matarraña River Basin - Euwareness

and the Central Government.
Apart from that, in 1995 the Central Government adopted a decree approving urgent
measures against draught. The decree included the construction of a hydraulic system
pumping project water from the Matarraña river to the Pena dam.
The Ministry of Environment, created in 1996, is the department holding responsibilities
on water policy. The inter-regional river basin administrations —in this case the Ebro
Hydrographic Confederation— depend on it.
The Confederación Hidrográfica del Ebro (CHE)
The CHE is the Ebro river basin agency. It was created in 1926 and currently depends
on the Ministry of Environment. It is the main actor in the regulative system of the
Matarraña river basin. Its functions include: the adoption of the Ebro river hydrological
plan (the Matarraña river is tributary to the Ebro river), done in 1998; the promotion of
regulation projects (for instance, the system pumping project water from the Matarraña
to the Pena dam in Beceite); the ordering of the watering out of the Pena dam; the
fixation of the ecological flow (now it is 325 l/second); the granting for the concessions
for irrigation and other water uses; the granting for waste disposal authorisations; and
the control of activities in the river basin through the so-called water commissaries
(Comisarios de aguas).
While the CHE plays a key position in the regulation system: it has many political and
legal resources available and has adopted a hierarchical and marked top-down
approach to regulation. It has traditionally has promoted regulation projects based on
the construction of large infrastructures that have proved be technically inefficient: the
Pena water dam (1930), the tube for deviating water (1970s), the pumping project
(1995-98) and the failed wells project at the head of the river basin (1998). In most
cases (except for the latter), the implementation of these projects have raised intense
conflict among the different interests of the river basin level. These regulation
infrastructures have traditionally generated opposition by the municipalities located at
the head of the river basin (mainly Beceite and Valderrobres), but have had adepts at
the middle and lower river basin (Maella, Fabara and Nonaspe). In addition, by the
creation of infrastructures, the CHE has given new water concessions, partly as a
means to finance the works, and has contributed to create increasing water demands.
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