Spain runs out of water: 27 million inhabitants are at risk of shortages in 2050

The glass of water in Spain is half empty.

The water shortage fueled by climate change, the structural investment deficit in the sector and the lack of adaptation to European regulations, pose a challenge for companies and public administrations.

To discuss these three axes, Unidad Editorial

held on November 25, in collaboration with

and

, an event that brought together all the agents of the sector under the slogan

.

Personalities from the world of politics, such as

, police officer of the General Directorate of the Environment of the European Commission (EC) or

, current Secretary of State for the Environment, attended the meeting.

As well as experts and businessmen from the sector such as

, advisor on water policy to the EC, the ECB and the UN, Julián Núñez, president of SEOPAN, and

, strategy partner of PwC.

All the speakers echoed incontestable evidence: climate change is compromising the water resources of the peninsula and any step taken in this area by institutions and social agents must be aimed at reversing this trend and ensuring the sustainability of the Spanish water system. This mandate becomes urgent since, as the Secretary of State for the Environment ruled, "there will be no progress if there is no sustainability."

The starting point is as follows: Spain is the third country in Europe with the highest water stress, with

at risk of desertification and

in danger of suffering from water scarcity in 2050. This trend could be seen aggravated, according to the president of SEOPAN,

, by the inefficiency of the obsolete sewerage infrastructures and supply networks in our country, which are responsible for the loss of

.

An "uncertain" future that would have a direct impact on the economic and social development of Spain, said Núñez.

To combat it, the speakers reminded the Government of some of the strategies that had already been prescribed.

Among them, the president of SEOPAN highlighted the

as a global strategy to fight climate change.

And especially, the ninth point of the Sustainable Development Goals, whose objective is to promote sustainable water infrastructures that reduce

.

A new limit "more restrictive" than the previous one, which, recalls Núñez, "we have not complied with for 30 years."

Víctor Martínez (El Mundo), Hugo Morán and Julián Núñez, president of Seopan.

This was confirmed by

, police officer of the General Directorate of the Environment of the European Commission (EC) in whose presentation she pointed out that Spain falters in the treatment of wastewater with removal of nitrogen or phosphorus, which exceeds

what is established in European regulations and that has led the country to accumulate more than

in sanctions related to wastewater management.

For the speakers, this ineffectiveness of the system has to do with the lack of public and private investment in the sector. The finger that points to the public administration affects the decrease in tenders for hydraulic works, which Núñez has placed at "

than before the pandemic." Also in the "irrelevant" presence of water in the Recovery and Resilience Mechanisms -

assigned for the next two years - or in the "

in water projects" of the PGE that are discovered if the investment contributed by the

funds is

.

Regarding private investment, the speakers agreed on the need to encourage the participation of companies in the sector.

This investment deficit has also been detected by Brussels.

"Spain will need to invest around

in wastewater treatment and drinking water to ensure and maintain compliance with the directive," Marczark identified.

An objective that represents

than the current investment in this area.

Santiago Otero, Strategy partner at PwC Spain.

In addition, proposals were debated to end the "absurd legislative barriers" that "hold back the competitiveness of Spain", such as the deindexation law, according to which "we are offering private investors a return 3 times lower than that demanded by the global market ", assures Núñez. To guide these investments, the speakers suggested using the

as a roadmap, since it describes long-term and agreed-upon hydrological strategies, with "quantifiable" and "well-identified" actions.

Hugo Morán, Secretary of State for the Environment, highlighted the importance of hydrological planning as the axis on which to structure, a posteriori, the planning of other sectors. Planning, investment and compliance with regulations would, however, remain incomplete if the need to reduce water allocations in the

of the different territorial demarcations

is not assumed

to adapt to the context imposed by climate change and by the EC. The announced cut would be about

, that will suppose "a turn of tendency perfectly aligned with the exigencies that the Commission (European) marks".

A kind of hydrological austerity whose challenges can only be faced with the "positive support and consensus" of all the actors involved in the sector.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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