Drought Planning and management in Spain Teodoro Estrela Deputy Water Director on Water Planning and Sustainable Water Use

Legal framework Drought management plans Drought Drought Management Plans Regulations developed Measures carried out Main conclusions Contents

Legal framework

Water Act (1985), in art. 58, foresees during exceptional drought circumstances, adopting the adequate measures in the public water domain for overcoming these situations through a royal Decree issued by the Government, agreed by the Council of Ministers, and heard the River Basin Authority. Drought management as an emergency situation

Law 10/2001, July 5, of the Hydrological Water Plan, establishes the bases for the drought planned management. Article 27. Drought management Section 1. The Ministry of Environment, for river basin organizations will establish a global hydrologic indicator system that will allow foreseeing these situations, and will serve as general reference for river basin authorities for the formal declaration of emergency situations and eventual drought. Section 2. Basin Organizations will develop Drought Management Plans (DMP) for alert situations and eventual drought (exploitation rules and measures) Section 3. Public Administrations responsible for public urban supplying, for town of or above 20,000 inhabitants, will provide: Emergency Plan for drought situations. Policy bases for Drought Management Plans

Drought Management Plans

Entities in charge: River Basin Authorities Objective: minimize environmental, social and economic impacts of drought situations Contents: includes diagnosis of situation (historical droughts, vulnerability of basin), indicators system (precipitation, river inflows in natural regime, stored volume in surface reservoirs, water levels in aquifers), programme of measures to be applied in each drought phase according to the drought status, management and follow-up system. DMP’s General characteristics

Development process of the DMPs PROMOTING ENTITY (River Basin) DMPStrategic Environmental Assessment ENVIRONMENTAL ENTITY INITIAL PLAN ROUGHT DRAFTINITIAL PLAN SCOPING DRAFT PLAN PUBLIC CONSULTATION STUDY AND RESPONSE OF COMPLAINTS MODIFICATIONS OF THE PLAN DRAFT PLAN PLAN PROPOSAL PLAN APPROVAL PUBLICATION OF THE PLAN APPLICATION OF THE PLAN PLAN FOLLOW UP AND CONTROL ENV. SUSTAINABILITY REPORT PUBLIC CONSULTATION REFERENCE DOCUMENT DEVELOPMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT PLAN ADVERTISEMENT+ ENVIRONMENTAL MEASURES + FOLLOW-UP MEASURES FOLLOW UP OF ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS AND OF THE PLAN DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOLLOW- UP

Drought in Spain

Hydrologic Status

Approval: Ministry of Environment Order. Publication in Official State Bulletin: 23/03/2007 Reference documents for formal declaration of drought situation and for drought management corresponding to period (measures to be applied as a function of hydrological status). Drought Management Plans TYPES OF MITIGATION MEASURES Indicator StatusNormalPre-alertAlertEmergency Objective Planni ng Information- controlConservationRestrictions Type of measureStrategicTacticsEmergency

Global system of hydrological indicators Maps are published on a monthly base since december 2005 (web page of Ministry)

Law-Decrees: adoption of urgent measures to develop water markets, to establish fee exemptions, etc Decrees: adoption of exceptional administrative measures to manage water resources and to palliate negative effects of droughts or to establish urgent irrigation works to save water. Ministerial Orders: modification of zones in which Decrees or Law-Decrees can be applied depending on the drought evolution. Regulations approved during drought

Works carried out from 2005

Map showing works carried out from 2005

Water Scarcity and droughts in EU: role of Spain Spain, France, Italy and the EC have led an Expert Network on Water Scarcity and Droughts in the framework of CIS. Significant role of Expert Network on the Stakeholder Forum and in discussions about the CE Communication on Water Scarcity and Droughts to the EU Parliament (July 2007) Spain has led a “Drought Management Plans Report”, approved by EU Water Directors in November Contributing to other international fora: CSD-16, UNECE, WWF, WWC Drought Strategy…

Drought management plans have revealed as essential tools for the management of drought situations. Public Water Supply restrictions have not occurred in spite of being a large drought cycle of 4 years. Water saves on irrigation have been a key element for the success of this water management policy. These water savings have been compensated economically with the exemption of fees when water supply were lower than 50% of the usual values. Conclusions on drought management