In this presentation the authors (Hug March, David Suarí, David Suarí) explore the shift towards desalination as an alternative to other water supply options such as river regulation or inter-basin water transfers. Desalination has been seen as the cure for everything that dams and inter-basin water transfers were unable to solve, including droughts, scarcities, social conflicts, environmental impacts, and political rivalries among the different Spanish regions. Desalination also means a new and powerful element in water planning and management that could provide water for the continuous expansion of the urban and tourism growth machine in Mediterranean Spain and thus relax possible water constraints on this growth. However, by 2012 most new desalination plants along the Mediterranean coast remained almost idle. Focusing on the case of the Mancomunidad de los Canales del Taibillla in south-eastern Spain, the authors objective is to develop a critical, integrated and reflexive perspective on the use of desalination as a source of water for urban and regional growth.

1. The end of scarcity? Water
desalination as the new cornucopia
for Mediterranean Spain
Hug March (IN3, UOC), David Saurí (UAB), Antonio M. Rico-Amorós (U.Alacant)
Paper published in Journal of Hydrology (2014), 519, 2642-2651
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The end of scarcity? Water desalination as the new cornucopia for Mediterranean Spain

2. Highlights of the paper
We explore the new orientation taken by Spanish water policy since
the beginning of the 21st century: shift towards desalination
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We develop a critical and reflexive perspective on the use of desalination in Spain
Desalination plants were massively implemented by means of the AGUA Program
We focus on the Mancomunidad de los Canales del Taibillla in South-eastern Spain
High price and the crisis of the building sector explains the low use of desalted water
Other alternative water sources and demand-side management should be promoted
The end of scarcity? Water desalination as the new cornucopia for Mediterranean Spain

3. Desalination: general overview (1)
• Climate change, population growth, expanding industrial development
• Increasing economic costs, impacts of and contestations to traditional
water sources (dams, water transfers, etc)
“No water resources program is of greater long-range importance –for relief not only of our
shortages, but for arid nations the world over –than our efforts to find an effective and
economical way to convert water from the world’s greatest, cheapest natural resources –our
oceans- into water fit for consumption in the home and by industry” President Kennedy, 1961
• Desalination is portrayed as a solution to 21st water crisis.
• “Nothing new under the sun”. It rapidly increased since mid 20th
century
Global Water Crisis
(with uneven impacts and manifestations in G. North/G. South)
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The end of scarcity? Water desalination as the new cornucopia for Mediterranean Spain

4. Desalination: general overview (2)
• Different types of technology
• 2013: >17,000 desal. plants, 150 countries, 80 million cubic meters per
day, serving partially or totally 300 million people
• Geographical uneven development: Arabian Gulf Countries, Spain,
USA
• Emerging geography of desalination: China, India, Chile, etc.
• Issues: environmental impacts, high energy use, distributional issues
Thermal Membrane
Multiple-effect
distillation (MED)
Multi-stage flash
(MSF)
Reverse Osmosis
Electrodialysis
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The end of scarcity? Water desalination as the new cornucopia for Mediterranean Spain

5. Desalination in Spain: the AGUA program of 2004
• Long trajectory with desalination: Canary Islands (1960s)
• 1980s: expansion in Balearic and Canary Islands
• 1990s: plans for desalination in mainland Spain (not fullfilled)
• 2001: National Water Plan (Plan Hidrológico Nacional).
• Central project: Ebro transfer. High contestation.
• 2004: General elections. Cancellation of the Ebro transfer.
• AGUA program: massive development of desalination plants along the
Mediterranean coast.
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The end of scarcity? Water desalination as the new cornucopia for Mediterranean Spain

6. Desalination plants as the compromise
solution to the tension between
increasing demands of water (increase
of the supply) along the Mediterranean
coast and the “New Water Culture” of
Spanish water authorities.
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The end of scarcity? Water desalination as the new cornucopia for Mediterranean Spain
Spain: 3rd country by installed
desalination capacity

7. 7
The end of scarcity? Water desalination as the new cornucopia for Mediterranean Spain
Desalination plant El Prat de Llobregat.
Source: Hug March

8. “La UE exige que funcionen las costosas desaladoras que financió”
(El País, 18 March 2012)
“Las desaladoras se usan al 16% de capacidad tras costar 2.300
millones” (El Economista, February 2013)
“Desalination is doubtfully sustainable …..of the 51 desalination plants
foreseen in the Programa AGUA only 17 have been built … desalination
plants only produce 15 percent of the water needed to compensate for the
cancellation of the Ebro transfer…Moreover, at a cost of 1,1 euros per
cubic meter, desalted water is totally unaffordable for farmers who cannot
pay more than 0,3 euro/ cubic meter.”
Miguel Arias Cañete, Minister for Agriculture and the Environment of the Spanish Popular Party (in power
since December 2011), Press Conference, 31st January 2012
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The end of scarcity? Water desalination as the new cornucopia for Mediterranean Spain
But...some years later...

9. Figure 1. Supply area of the Mancomunidad de los Canales del
Taibilla (MCT). Source: own elaboration.
Case study: Mancomunidad de los Canales del
Tabililla (MCT)
• 80 municipalities of Murcia
and Alicante
•2.4 million people (and 1
million extra in summer)
• Incorporation of several
surface sources since the
1970s
•In 2003 introduction of
desalination
• 4 desal plants + agreements
with AGUA program desal
plants to use water
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The end of scarcity? Water desalination as the new cornucopia for Mediterranean Spain

10. • Critical survey of existing official reports and national and regional
plans (e.g. on the viability of desalination plants)
• Informal conversations with water planners and managers of the MCT
• Examination of evolution of water consumption in MCT contrasted with
water demand forecasts
Methodology
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The end of scarcity? Water desalination as the new cornucopia for Mediterranean Spain

11. Figure 2. Water sources of the Mancomunidad de
los Canales del Taibilla, 1989-2012 (in thousands
of cubic meters).
Evolution of water sources in MCT
Figure 3. Desalted water used by the MCT in
2011 and 2012.
• MCT desal plants only produced 44 of the 96 MCM capacity per year in 2012
• Virtually no water was used from the AGUA program desal plants
• Desalination is underused. In some case there are idle desal plants.
• Why?
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The end of scarcity? Water desalination as the new cornucopia for Mediterranean Spain

12. 1. Farmers are reluctant to sign agreements to obtain water from the
desalination plants because of the cost of desalted water compared to
traditional sources.
Traditional sources: 0.20-0.30 euros/m3
Desalted water: up to 0.90-1 euros/m3
2. Economic crisis. Collapse of the building sector. Urban growth
scenarios not met.
3. Stabilization of urban water demand
Production capacity (2012): around 400 MCM
Real water use (2012): 194 MCM
The end of scarcity? Water desalination as the new cornucopia for Mediterranean Spain

13. • Desalination was promoted based on two premises that did not
materialize:
1. Inferior or at least equal costs to other large-scale alternatives
2. Expanding demand after the boom in the urban and tourist sector in
early 2000s
• Overcapacity of desalination plants. Wide margin to cope with
future scarcity periods thanks to underused or idle desalination plants
• Relative scarcities. How will be able to afford this water?
(distributional issues)
• Desalination as the continuation of 20th century water planning,
subordinated to urban and economic growth?
Conclusions
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The end of scarcity? Water desalination as the new cornucopia for Mediterranean Spain