Water Quantity and Quality Issues in Mediterranean Agriculture - Water and Agriculture: Sustainability, Markets and Policies - page 59

Chapter 5.
Water Quantity and Quality Issues in Mediterranean Agriculture

José Albiac, 1 Yolanda Martínez 2 and Javier Tapia 1

The high demand of water resources for irrigation purposes is the cause of significant
water quantity and quality problems in Mediterranean countries. The reliance of the
Water Framework Directive on water pricing may fail in these countries, since water
pricing is quite complex to implement in irrigated agriculture, efficiency of water pricing
is questionable, and its political acceptability remains to be seen. This calls for
alternative Directive instruments, such as the re-allocation of water from off-stream use
by agricultural, urban and industrial users to environmental uses both in aquifers and
streams, and also in the coastal wetlands. Pollution control instruments such as ambient
quality standards and pollution emission limits are also needed.
The heated policy debate that has been taking place in Spain over ways to solve water
scarcity and resource degradation highlights the difficulties involved in achieving
sustainable management of water resources, because of the conflicting interests of
diverse stakeholders, such as regions, economic sectors and political and environmental
groups. This study presents empirical results on the assessment of alternatives to
overcome water scarcity in south-eastern Spain, and also a ranking of abatement
measures for agricultural pollution control. These empirical results question water
pricing as an efficient or even feasible instrument to allocate irrigation water or to curb
pollution. Government water authorities, environmental NGOs and international
organisations should look carefully at the implications of sound empirical research that
takes into account the underlying biophysical processes and the complex spatial, dynamic
and social issues involved in the design of water policies. Water and pollution markets,
while difficult to implement, appear to be a much more efficient and feasible policy
approach than water pricing. Even the current command and control water policies that
most countries have in place seem to be more appropriate for irrigation management
than water pricing.

1. Introduction

Irrigation is an essential factor in the agricultural production of Mediterranean
countries, while water is used only marginally in central and northern European
agriculture. There is significant pressure on water resources and fluvial ecosystems in
1.

CITA, Government of Aragón, Spain.

2. Department of Economic Analysis, University of Zaragoza, Spain.