Case Study 1: Matarraña River Basin - Euwareness

Regarding the regulative system, both water and sectoral legislation introduce marginal
changes in the de facto use rights and protection system at the Matarraña river basin.
The 29/1985 Water Act introduces the concept of hydraulic public domain for surface
and ground waters, which means that private ownership is almost suppressed (there
are still temporary basis which recognise water private property according to the
previous legislation). The Act regulates privative uses of water and requests an
authorisation or a concession to allow them. It also regulates the need to register water
concessions in the Water register. In practice, at the Matarraña river basin level this
regulative framework has been marginally implemented: most concessions are not
registered in the Water Register, about 30% of the extension of the river basin uses
water illegally, and tradition allows for the existence of de facto use rights beyond the
regulative system. Maybe the creation of Users Communities in locations where users
were not organised has been one of the most noticeable impacts of the 1985 Water
Act. Apart from that, the 29/1985 Water Act also establishes the elaboration of river
basin plans. In the case of the Ebro river, the CHE elaborated its river basin plan in
1998, establishing water needs and uses as well as the ecological flow. This flow may
or may not be respected, and water sometimes is consumed for uses other than those
established by the plan. Apart from that, sectoral legislation, mainly the one regulating
environmental protection (mostly with an EU origin) has generated certain constraints
and opportunities in the regulation system. For instance, legislation on habitats or fish
species. However, this legislation may be easily bypassed.
The most salient changes of the regime concern the policy system. As it was pointed
out previously, changes can be detected as regards the multilevel dimension of
governance, the problem perception and the actors in the policy network. To sum up,
conflict traditionally has confronted actors located at the higher, middle and lower river
basin and has been more intense in periods of water scarcity. The increasing multilevel
nature of governance means that legislation, arenas, actors and resources at different
scales of governance play a role in the governance system. In the late nineties,
territorial rivalries intensify both because of the ability of ‘conservationist’ actors of
mobilising resources and actors located at different levels of governance and because
of the increasing perception of risk caused by an extreme situation of drought. Conflict
is relaxed and a new perception viewing water in the Matarraña river basin as a
resource to be preserved becomes dominant.
In order to explain regime change, two sets of variables can be identified: those
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