Author(s)

M. Sevilla & T. Torregrosa

Abstract

Over recent years, the scientific community, the government and the general public have shown their concern for the rapid deterioration of the earth’s natural resources, particularly water resources. In a number of countries this has led to the creation of new legislation which has been designed to help slow down this deterioration and to implement a series of measures which aim to solve the problem in the most sustainable way possible in years to come. Nevertheless, with the implementation of these different legal rules it has become clear that sufficient economic resources must also be made available in order to construct new infrastructures and to maintain the corresponding services in good condition. This paper aims to examine the model implemented in Spain, since the approval of the \“National Waste Water Drainage and Treatment Plan, 1995−2005” through to the implementation of the current \“Water Quality Plan, 2007−2013”. A great deal of investment is required for the second Plan in order to ensure that the targets of the former are met and in order to increase the level of financial resources and the amount of research carried out in this field. There exists some uncertainty about the Regional Government’s commitment to finance the system through the introduction of drainage taxes and their willingness to establish appropriate management areas in order to increase the efficiency of the facilities. Analysis is made even more difficult due to the lack of unified economic information about the different systems, which is a topic that could be examined in further studies on wastewater treatment in Spain. The paper also aims to show how powers are distributed between the different administrations in Spain has resulted in a series of distinct models, making it very difficult to evaluate the results obtained. Despite the positive steps taken by Spain in this field, there is still room for improvement and optimisation. Keywords: wastewater management, conflict of competences.

Keywords

wastewater management, conflict of competences.