Water Case Study: Spain

The average precipitation in south-east Spain is approximately ​ (a)   mm a year

• 365
• 250
• 30
• 543

Most precipitation occurs in ​ (a)  

• winter
• summer
• autumr
• autumn
• spring

The area is one of the ​ (a)   in Europe

• driest
• wettest
• windiest
• humid

80% of the available water is used for:

• Agriculture

• Industry

• Domestic

Tourism increases the problem as:

• An average tourist uses between 450-800 litres per day

  An average Spaniard uses 127 litres per day

• Water parks and golf courses use significant quantities of water 

• Increasing the demand for food/farming

• Leakage

Tagus-Segura Project built in 1978 involved:

A ​ (a)   pipeline which connects for Spanish river basins Tagus, Jucar, Segura and Guadiana

​ (b)   of the water flowing into the Tagus was transferred to the ​ (c)  

• 286km
• 60%
• south-east
• north-east
• south- west
• 20%
• 80%
• 48km
• 397km

Issues with the Tagus-Segura Project

• Water consumption in the south-east increased due to an increase in supply

• Much of the water transferred went to the tourist and leisure users not to small scale farmers

• It is estimated that 15% of the transferred water is being illegally used by leisure users such as golf courses

• Large commercial farms are benefitting more than small scale farmers

Ebro project

A second water transfer project was proposed in 2001 to transfer water from the River Ebro. This project was abandoned due to:

• The failure and issues with the Tagus-Segura project

• The cost

• The threat to the Ebro delta as the scheme would have disrupted sediment flow to the delta

• Spain has now moved to utilising desalinisation plants to meet the demand for water

In Spain: 147,000 hectares of land require irrigation

• True

• False

Spain experiences regular droughts

• False

• True