Spain is heir to an ancient culture of water, which began with theconstruction of the first dams and aqueducts in Roman times, and wasconsolidated with Arab technological contributions and thegeneralization of traditional irrigation systems in much of theMediterranean and southern peninsula. The first transfer project ofwhich there are written references is that of the Júcar al Vinalopó,dating from 1420. It is therefore a long history of water domination ina country of irregular rainfall and long summer droughts.Since the 19th century, the alliance between political power, certaineconomic sectors (construction and energy companies)and intellectuals and regenerationist engineers has workedgood. The main water policy in the Spanish State hasbeen focused on increasing the resource through theconstruction of exploitation infrastructures, transport andwater storage (Arrojo, 1998). only at the end of20th century, management policies begin to be implementeddemand: water purification for reuse,control of urban demand through tariffs and modernization ofnetworks to avoid losses due to leaks, etc. However, thesepolicies never succeeded in shutting down the voices that demandmore water, especially some political sectors andfarmers, who see in the construction of large complexeshydraulics a more effective and less expensive measure (oneverything for promoters and companies if the works are paid for by theState). At present, Spain is consolidated as atrue hydraulic society, since it is the tenth country in theworld in number of dams, with 1196 (CIGB, 2023).However, since 2021 we are officially in asituation of "climate emergency" that, among other things,forces a much more rational use of water for alluses and calls into question the policy based on theconstruction of new water reservoirs. This year 2023It is already being, in many areas of the country, one of the mostdry for many decades and is assuming aserious threat to numerous rainfed agricultures, inwhose fields have hardly rained since last year. Thisdeclaration of a "climate emergency" does not only consistin a series of political statements, but it comesaccompanied by new legislative instruments to alllevels that intend to carry out an "energy transition"within the parameters of the "Green New Deal" of theEuropean Union. This has resulted in practice in aproliferation with hardly any control of hundreds of projects ofgeneration of renewable energies, which have been primed (innew) on rural mountain areas, poor andunpopulated, not far in many cases from all those valleysthat were forcibly emptied and flooded to buildthe hydraulic society that we mentioned. However, atjust as it happens with water, few voices from theState and regional institutions address the debate and thebig question about how much water and energy we needas a society to adequately satisfy ourneeds; in a context of increasing water stress, andalso energy for political issues such as warin Ukraine, but also again because of climate change.Let's not forget that the deployment of the entire complexhydraulics in Spain was carried out largely to generateelectricity from artificial waterfalls, but thatclimate change forecasts seriously questionour generation capacity due to a probable decreaseof the flows of many rivers, as in fact ishappening lately in basins such as the Guadiana orthat of the Guadalquivir. Far from addressing this debate, inautonomous communities such as Aragon has betstrongly for a speculative model of largerenewable energy projects, also with strongterritorial impacts. If for much of the 20th century,small local power plants wereclosing its doors to make way for large complexeshydroelectric (Recartographies, 2021), right now wewe find the same dialectic, when power stationsmedium size, as is the case of the Torans, close toSarrion, is condemned to disappear. fully functionaland installed on an irrigation dam with centuries of history, itwants to tear down to make way for large plate projectssolar and wind turbines, which is generating not a fewconflicts in numerous populations and, likehappen with the fever of the hydroelectric power plants, aserious threat to the environment and to the future ofmany towns. It seems that again the "sacredTrinity" between bankers, energy companies and governmentsworks perfectly again, in this case for asecond revolution of "renewable" energy.Meanwhile, the pollution of our rivers, the future oflarge hydroelectric complexes in a context of changeclimate change, the sustainability of certain irrigation systems in areas ofsteppe and, above all, the question of how much waterwe need, are debates completely missing orsilenced by the mainstream media andgovernments of different political color.http://apoyomutuoaragon.net_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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