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Box 4.5           Recommendations to implement the FD in the Guadiana basin – a water governance perspective

Various aspects of water governance are well organised in the Guadiana river basin. Roles and responsibilities for policy making are well defined and water is managed both at the basin and the local scale. Many data are available and used to inform decisions regarding dam regulation and water allocation. In relation to implementing the FD, the Spanish have developed a well-conceived plan. It is clear on the roles and responsibilities of various water authorities and states that coordinated participation of all institutional authorities is fundamental in controlling floods. It is coherent with existing policies and proposes measures that are approved by the responsible authorities.

However, there are also several issues that require attention to implement the FD. The first issue is cross-sectoral coordination. Coordination with other sectors is difficult. Other sectors such as agriculture, industry and spatial planning are much more powerful than water and the environment. They also have more budget. As a result, many activities (e.g. expansion of urban and industrial areas, planting of olive trees) take place in flood prone areas. This complicates the process of space reservations for flood risk management.

The second issue is capacity. Although a proper flood risk management plan may have been developed, the capacity to implement and enforce it is limited. This is already the case with existing water policies. Due to the economic crisis, there is very limited budget for water projects. The implementation of measures of the flood risk management plan will only improve with the availability of new financial resources. 

The third issue is that of trade-offs across users and generations. Due to the economic crisis the main focus is on economic development and there is no attention for trade-offs between environmental protection and economic development. The next-generation aspect is also not reflected in the implementation of water programs and projects.

The fourth issue is that of innovative governance. The river basin organisations (Confederaciones) are quite conservative and do not want much to change. Hence there is a big challenge to implement novel measures for flood risk management since the Confederaciones are the governmental water experts and responsible for river basin management.