Spain faces a problem derived from the climate crisis: water is increasingly scarce because precipitation is decreasing and it is getting hotter. But it continues to develop a premier irrigated agricultural sector, which is the largest consumer of water in the country.
In this context, the Greenpeace organization analyzed how much Spain could irrigate to avoid falling into a “water collapse” in a scenario of resource reduction. And it has reached a count of almost one million hectares compared to the nearly four million that currently exist, notably those dedicated to intensive and industrial agriculture.
The work entitled How much can you water? Analysis of available water in Spain facing climate change quantifies the impact that the expected reduction in water availability in the coming years (2030-2100) will have on the landscape, taking into account weather forecasts and increased demand. “This is not the first report we have written on this subject, but now it was necessary to go deeper into the ‘how much’, to clarify it,” explains Julio Barea, head of Greenpeace’s water campaign program.
Spain is the fourth country in the EU with the greatest water stress and ranks 28th in the world. “The availability of water in our country is decreasing. However, water consumption continues. If we do not solve this problem, we will arrive at a water collapse, which we are already on the verge of happening, ”says the expert. 80% of Spanish water is used for agriculture, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
Our territory currently has 3.8 million irrigated hectares. Greenpeace says they are expected to continue to increase in the short term, based on a review of current basin management plans. “But the strategy itself to combat desertification and all the climate models of the future indicate that there will be fewer and fewer resources available and more and more frequent droughts,” they recall.
Less precipitation
According to the organization’s study, precipitation is expected to decrease by 2 to 4 percent by 2040, by 8 to 12 percent by 2070 and by 15 to 26 percent by 2100. The largest water reserves affected by this situation would be those of the hydrological demarcations of the Canary Islands, Guadalete-Barbate and the Andalusian Mediterranean basins. Also that of Guadiana, Guadalquivir, Tinto-Odiel-Piedras or even those of the Balearic Islands.
At the same time, due to the expected increase in temperatures that is occurring and will become more and more pronounced with global warming, it is estimated that by 2040 the potential evapotranspiration of these places – the maximum amount of water capable of evaporating in a given climate – increase of between 3% and 4% by 2040, between 10% and 14% by 2070 and between 19% and 31% by 2100, the basin Duero being the most affected by this cause, analyzes by environmentalists abound.
The combination of these two variables will result, by 2040, in Spain having 889 cubic hectometers less of available water in the best scenario and 1,515 in the worst. In other words: available water will be reduced by 4 to 7% in just 20 years.
Only a 20-25% reduction in current irrigation could guarantee the availability of sufficient water for the population, but hydrological plans continue to provide for an increase in irrigation.
Green Peace
“Only a reduction of 20 to 25% of current irrigation could guarantee the availability of a sufficient quantity of water for the population, but hydrological plans continue to provide for an increase in irrigation,” emphasizes Greenpeace. This reduction would result in the removal of around one million hectares of irrigated land in the country: a country threatened by drought where the volumes of water stored in reservoirs are already 31% lower than the average of the last 10 years, but which intends to continue increasing legal irrigation until 2033 (until 2039 in Segura), affirms the NGO.
So much so that, in the Duero, Ebro and Guadiana basins, more than 106,892 new irrigated hectares will be added, according to the records of their hydrological plans that the organization has examined.
We want and need agriculture yes or yes, but not like that
Julio Barea
— Head of Greenpeace Water Campaign
“We want and need agriculture no matter what, but not like this. Because? Because agriculture has changed a lot in recent years. It is no longer agriculture that we think of: the small farmer, the working family… Now many lands have been grouped together, large, very large farms have been set up, and these farms, more in addition, are in the hands of big agro-industry”, he denounces. Barea.
Focus on large farms
Greenpeace demands as essential measures that the government establishes a road map for the reduction of irrigation by 2040, emphasizes that the reduction of these irrigations must focus on large agricultural holdings, demands as essential that any illegal irrigation in the country is eliminated, that priority be given to reductions in already stressed areas (aquifers in poor quantitative and chemical condition as well as in areas vulnerable to nitrate contamination), which freeze any new irrigation projects located in these areas defined as critical, as well as investments in new irrigations in all basins, among other recommendations. “We hope they will listen to us, but we have before us a Ministry of Agriculture that is going completely in the opposite direction,” exclaims the expert.
