The end of scarcity? Water desalination as the new cornucopia for Mediterranean Spain

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

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


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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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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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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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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Spain: 3rd country by installed

desalination capacity

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Desalination plant El Prat de Llobregat.

Source: Hug March

“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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But...some years later...

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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• 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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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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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


• 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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