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- Title
Bacias hidrográficas luso-espanholas - desafios da governança para a sustentabilidade.
- Authors
PALERMO, Raquel; Eduardo VENTURA, José; PEREIRA, Margarida
- Abstract
For more than 150 years, Portugal and Spain have been establishing water sharing treaties and conventions, with the Albufeira Convention (CA) being the most recent agreement signed between the two States. Internationally regarded as an exemplary convention, which may even serve as a future model of water management in semi-arid conditions, CA presents weaknesses in its cooperation mechanisms and its implementation has suffered from a lack of political strongness. Portugal, a country downstream, receives from Spain about half of its water resources under natural conditions, which puts it in a position of water dependence in relation to the neighboring state. The Climate Change impact scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) foresee a particularly severe situation of reduce flow for the Iberian territory, which could increase Portugal's vulnerability as a downstream country. In the perspective of nine Portuguese water specialists, consulted in the context of a master's dissertation (Palermo, 2020), there are four main challenges that Portugal faces in its water relationship with Spain: flow management in quantity and quality; greater dialogue and cooperation; greater technical training; and institutional stability. The Tagus and Guadiana basins are the most worrying, with the Tagus basin proving, in recent years, to be the most critical. In the Guadiana basin, located in a territory vulnerable to aridity and drought, the question of the use of the Boca-Chanza catchment by Spain, beyond what was agreed with Portugal, remains unresolved. Spain intends to make this situation permanent, which has always been provisional, and which harms Portugal. Iberian cooperation is essential to prevent the impact of climate change on the Peninsula and should be based on joint planning of the water resources of the two countries, starting with the scarcity and drought plans, and on monitoring based on updated, relevant and public information. To improve its water governance, Portugal needs to work, as a matter of priority, three OECD good governance principles: (1) Integrity and Transparency, (2) Consistent Data and Information, and (3) Capacity building for the performance of its tasks.
- Subjects
NATURAL resources; CONTRACTS; BUILDING performance; WATER management; WATER supply
- Publication
Journal of Water Resources / Recursos Hídricos, 2022, Vol 43, Issue 1, p37
- ISSN
0870-1741
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5894/rh43n1-cti3