Climate change forces Spain and Portugal to sit down to rethink the Albufeira Convention

Friday, September 30, ended a complicated hydrological year for Spain. To the lack of rains and the low level of the reservoirs has been added at the last minute a conflict in the flow of water to Portugal that has raised blisters on both sides of the border.

Thousands of farmers in León and Zamora watched indignantly in mid-September as the reservoirs that irrigate their land emptied at high speed and without warning to send water to the neighboring country.

After the protests of the camp, the Ministry of Ecological Transition had to retreat and close the gates of the dams, which caused the anger of Portuguese farmers and led to the breach of the Albufeira Convention. Specifically, Spain has failed this year in its flow of water to Portugal in the Tagus and the Douro: both have sent 90% of the agreed flow.

The Albufeira Convention was signed in 1998 under the presidency of Aznar and establishes the flow of water that must flow each year from Spain to Portugal for the shared demarcations of the Guadiana, the Tagus, the Duero, the Miño and the Sil. This measure was taken because Spanish rivers are a succession of reservoirs and, as water does not flow naturally, it must be ensured that every year a minimum flow crosses the border so that both countries enjoy the water.

While the rivers and reservoirs are full there is no problem, but this year has been especially dry and the Spanish swamps of the Castile and the south of the peninsula are under minimum. To these is added a poor organization of water reservoirs by the Duero and Tagus Hydrological Basin, the agencies responsible for managing the flows of the two rivers.

“It seems that the basins have reserved a lot of water to see how the summer progressed, and instead of releasing little by little during the year they have waited until the last moment to do it at once,” explains Nuria Hernández-Mora, member of the Chair of the Tagus of the University of Castilla-La Mancha.

This episode has occurred in different dams that irrigate the Duero, such as Riaño, Porma or Almendra, and hides a problem that comes from afar. The authors of the Albufeira Convention focused on solving the political problem of river control, but did not address the ecological dimension of sharing a riverbed, which involves collecting how and when water will be allowed to flow so that the flow of rivers is as natural as possible when crossing the border.

Although in 2008 certain minimum weekly and quarterly flows were introduced, the Spanish river basins still have ample room to maneuver with the flow of rivers and release water at the end of the hydrological year to comply with the agreement, as happened in recent weeks.

“If every year it rains less and we have drought problems, the problem is much bigger if we empty the reservoirs to comply with Albufeira,” says Javier Alonso, representative of the Community of Irrigators of the Páramo Bajo.

The Duero basin has finished the hydrological year with the reservoirs at 30% while last year they were at half their capacity on the same dates, a situation that generates nervousness among farmers. To this is added that a drier than normal autumn is expected that would prevent filling the swamps between now and the next planting.

“This spring we prepared the harvest with the reservoirs overflowing and that allowed us to plant the whole field,” says the farmers’ spokesman. “But if next year we reach the campaign with the reservoirs at 50%, we will leave half uncultivated.”

However, from the Community of Irrigators insist that their proposal is not to leave Portugal without water. What angers them, they say, is that the reservoir drains have been used on the other side of the border to generate electricity, while they have spent years investing money to make their crops more efficient. “No one is more aware of savings and the ecosystem than us,” says Alonso.

From farmers to experts, such as Nuria Hernández-Mora, agree that the most important thing is to establish responsible flows that ensure a constant flow of water to Portugal that avoids reaching the month of September with a water deficit of the agreement.

As they explain, in addition to avoiding the social impact of emptying a reservoir, agreeing on a regular flow of water means less impact on the ecosystem than the current system of times of scarcity and times of floods, which end up causing torrents that devastate everything in their path, as happened years ago in the Portuguese Tagus.

This is one of the biggest criticisms from the other side of the border, as the Portuguese ecologists of the ProTejo Movement expose. “The problem stems from the high volatility of flows. There are quarters that we receive 37% of the flow of a year, and even weeks that we receive 12% of the year, and this seriously damages ecosystems and agriculture, “says Paulo Constantino.

From the Portuguese countryside, they also demand a reform in this line, and affirm that Spain’s failure to comply with the agreed flows “adds to an already complicated situation due to the drought caused by climate change,” according to the secretary general of the Confederation of Farmers of Portugal (CAP), Luís Mira. “Therefore, we must ensure that daily flows are maintained instead of monthly to achieve a more regular balance in these flows and a more effective and constant control of this situation,” he proposes.

The Spanish government already announced on Thursday that Portugal and Spain will meet in the next three months to evaluate the hydrological year that has just ended and to “plan the future of the problem of water scarcity and drought in the peninsula”, although they do not mention a future reform of the flows of the Albufera.

Source: InfoLibre