Chapter 10

A new water culture: Catalonia’s
public co-governance model in themakingBy Míriam Planas and Juan Martínez

In 2010, a slow but constant movement for public water services began
in Catalonia, and remunicipalisation is now a reality in 27 municipalities(with another seven determined to follow their example in the next few
years). Eighty-four per cent of the population in this Spanish autonomous
region depend on a private company for their water supply. This isequivalent to roughly 400 of Catalonia’s 900 municipalities.
In 2011 the Aigua és Vida (Water is Life) regional platform was set up in
Catalonia by a wide variety of civil society organisations: neighbourhood
associations, trade unions, environmental and international solidarity
organisations, among others. The aim of the platform is to advocate forthe public sector to decide on water policy and manage the entire water
cycle in Catalonia, with civil society participation and oversight to ensure
the quality of the service and democratic governance. The platform alsodenounces the role of the private sector in the management of waterand sanitation, and participates in groups and networks at the national,
European and global level.
Other municipal local platforms campaigning for remunicipalisation indifferent cities emerged during the same period, such as Aigua és Vida
Girona and Taula de l’Aigua de Terrassa, with more in subsequent years
to reach 18 local groups across the region. These are local neighbourhood
platforms working in each municipality to develop citizen oversight ofwater and advocate for the remunicipalisation of the service.

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SPAIN OF CASES 119
TOTAL NUMBER

Remunicipalisation 105
Municipalisation 14

Health care &social services

Waste

6

14
EnergyWater

Education

18

38

2

Local government

41

Housing 2
Food and catering 1

Public (green) space maintenance 12
Parking 6
Building cleaning and maintenance 10
Sports 2
Cultural activities 2
Construction 1
Funeral services 2

Highlights• The number of (re)municipalisations has more than doubled since 2017.
• A very strong social and municipalist movement has pushed for the 38
water remunicipalisations.
• Water remunicipalisation in Terrassa is leading to new forms of democratic
decision-making. With the support of civil society, the city created a Water
Observatory so users can participate in public management.
• Valladolid has saved €13.3 million since water remunicipalisation in 2017,
almost 4% of the municipal budget for 2018.
• In total, 41 local government services were remunicipalised, such as school
canteens, green spaces, parking, cleaning and funeral services.

Other 3More recently, the Association of Municipalities and Organisations for
Public Water in Catalonia (Asociación de Municipios y Entidades por el
Agua Pública, AMAP) was established in January 2018. The founders of
this association were seven municipalities, two public service providers
and the Asociación Catalana de Enginyeria Sense Fronteres, representing
Aigua és Vida. One third of the inhabitants of Catalonia live in these sevenmunicipalities. The purpose of the association is to publicise and promote
fully public management of water, and to support municipalities thatwish to move towards public management. Another aim is to advocate forpublic policies on public management of water. On the eve of its second
anniversary, AMAP continues to grow and now has 36 members.

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In this complex scenario, coordination, sharing and trust among diverse
movements and actors in the water sector have been key to chip away at
the private sector’s monopoly.The immediate challenge is how to build
new, long-lasting models designed for new forms of water governance.
In this sense, the case of the water movement in Terrassa can serve as
inspiration for new experiences.1

The process of recovering ownership of the service inTerrassa
Terrassa is a municipality located some 20 kilometres away from the cityof Barcelona. It is Catalonia’s third largest city in terms of population,with 218,535 inhabitants in 2018. In 1941, in the midst of the dictatorship,
the concession to manage and run the water supply service was awarded
to the company Mina Pública de Aguas de Terrassa, S.A. for a period of 75
years. Despite being ‘public’ in name, this is a strictly private company
owned by a group of industrialists from the city.
Taula de l’Aigua de Terrassa (Water is Life Terrassa) was created in 2013.
It is a social organisation originally formed to return the management of
the water supply service into public hands by 2016, the year the concession was due to end. It launched a process of information, documentationand training for its members, made contact with networks such as Aigua
és Vida and Enginyeria Sense Fronteres, and organised numerous information events and campaigns to collect signatures. When the municipal
elections were held in 2015, it campaigned for a ‘Social Pact for Public
Water’, a pledge committing to public, integrated and participatory management of the entire water cycle, and it invited all political groups andsocial organisations to become signatories.
Despite pressure from the city’s business lobby, in July 2016 Terrassa’s
City Council approved a motion in favour of direct management of thewater supply service. Finally, in June 2018, Taigua, Aigua Municipal de155

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Terrassa was created as a public enterprise 100 per cent owned by themunicipal government.2 A month later, the by-laws were approved for
the Terrassa Water Observatory (Observatorio del Agua de Terrassa),
mandating it to facilitate citizen participation in order to define policies
and guide strategic decisions affecting the municipal water supply service.3

The Water Observatory as a body for collaboration
The Terrassa Water Observatory has its origins in a motion approved by
the Citizen Parliament of Terrassa, a forum that promotes debate andagreements pushed by citizens for consideration by local authorities. Prolonged negotiation with the municipal government and political groups
in favour of remunicipalisation led to the approval of its by-laws in July
2018. Putting the Observatory in place was another lengthy negotiation
process, which unfolded during three key meetings held in 2019: in February when it was officially set up; in March when appointments weremade for all of the management posts; and in April when the work plan4
and budget were approved and working groups were set up.5 The Observatory is an innovative body for participation and collaboration, which
has become a point of reference for many other municipalities in Catalonia and Spain, particularly for the movement campaigning for publicmanagement of water.
The Observatory was set up as an autonomous organisation affiliatedwith the Terrassa City Council. The nature of its work is to consult,advise, deliberate and make proposals, and it is able to carry out studies
and produce reports and recommendations on water management. It also
has the power to draft agreements that must be studied by the municipal
government with the aim of including citizen participation in defining
policies and strategic decisions to ensure that the service operates
properly.

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Publish agreements, reports,
studies, proposals, publications
and opinions

Exercise public control over theserviceNew water culture:actions, training andinformation

Transparency policy:
information, communication and indicators

Energise participation
processes within thewater service

The Terrassa Water
Observatory

Participate in defining
municipal policy

Management andcommunication

Promote networking

The preamble to its by-laws states that the Observatory was established‘with the political will to improve governance of the city by increasing
participation, collaboration and consensus-building with citizens andsocial actors’, and it specifies that ‘this new space is designed to be aparticipatory forum that will operate autonomously, with its own work
plan and sufficient funding to be able to fulfill its roles and responsibilities
and achieve its objectives, in compliance with the democratic quality
criteria established by the Terrassa City Council’.
The fact that the Observatory operates autonomously is essential toenable it to perform its roles. This autonomy is guaranteed by theappointment of an independent president by the Plenary, as well as thatof coordinators whose actions must follow the guidelines issued by thepresident and the Standing Commission, all of which aims to insulate itfrom politics related to election cycles.
As the highest governing body, the Plenary is composed of a representativefrom each political group in the municipality, a representative of themunicipal government (in this case, the councillor responsible for thecity’s water service who attends meetings but does not chair them), and157

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Standing
Commission

Group on social
control

Plenary
Water Observatory of Terrassa

Group on thehuman rightto water andsocial justice

Board of
Research

Group ontransparency
and indicators

Group on water
footprint, circular
economy andecosystem
services

Group on water
quality andtaste

Board of
Education

Group onEuropeanprojects
and funding
sources

Board of
Research

representatives of technical service staff, businesses, community groups,
unions, the education sector and university-based research groups. Boththe president and the Plenary can also invite people from outside theObservatory (with no voting right) to enrich the debate and discussion on
any specific issue. This diverse composition makes management of the
Observatory somewhat complicated, but it also enhances its consensusbuilding capacity and gives it a high level of legitimacy.
The driving forces behind the Observatory and ensuring that its work planis implemented are the six working groups and the three collaboration
boards or networks – research/university, education/schools andcitizenship/community groups. The working groups are coordinated by
the Observatory’s Standing Commission, and are open to everyone who
wishes to contribute. The individuals involved are mainly from socialorganisations, universities and other groups that are members of the
Observatory.
The three collaboration boards are autonomous forums that act as interest
groups, aiming to reinforce the common project, raise the Observatory’s
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A new water culture: Catalonia’s public co-governance model in the making

has delegated to the board of Education the task of promoting the newwater culture in the education system. The board of Research acts as a
broker within the university setting and facilitates communication withteaching staff and students. The board of Citizenship does the same with
community groups. All of these spaces are open to anyone who wishes tocontribute.
The representatives and members of the governance structure areappointed for a four-year term. The president is elected by the Plenary,with an absolute majority of members (except the person representing
the municipal government), and the position is voluntary. Consecutive
terms are not allowed.

Now that we have recovered ownership of water, whatnext?
Now the major task for Taula de l’Aigua, the social organisations, thepolitical groups and city government is to consolidate the Observatory’s
process and project. This implies delivering on the agreed work plan andovercoming process-related barriers.
The work plan is structured around four main areas of action. The firstis communication: this involves defining the image of the Observatoryand developing the communication tools that will enable it to transmit
information and knowledge successfully. The second area of work is tomake the concept of social control6 meaningful and develop objectives, awork plan and methodology; this also involves information management,
transparency and indicators for monitoring. The third area is related topromoting a new water culture locally, through activities in schools.
Finally, the fourth area involves conducting studies on key issues
pertaining to the water cycle in the city, as they relate to the social,environmental and technical-economic dimensions relevant to theworking groups.

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Of the many and varied challenges that must be addressed, we present
three salient ones. The first is the conflict between the autonomy of partof the management structure and the hierarchy of municipal government
responsibilities. The second is to guarantee the co-production of public
policy and collaborative governance in a public service. The third is the
weakness linked to disagreements between social groups due to different
ways of understanding social mandates.
With regard to the first challenge, in a study on the Observatory7 theresearcher Hug Lucchetti asks whether the Observatory as a com-munity
management body fits within the municipal government’s organisational
structures. He concludes that it does not, for two reasons: an institutional
culture receptive to this type of public oversight does not yet exist in local
government; and the local government architecture and legislation thatwould facilitate it is not in place either. There is no doubt that the oldforms of governance are not a suitable format for the shared developmentof public policy. For this reason, there is a need to move forward withproposals to make changes to the regulations regarding participation to
include the approach of co-produced public policy and co-managementof public services, as well as a need to develop new narratives that help
to change the current political culture that is suspicious of innovationsof this type. The difficulty of combining the desire for citizen oversightand the desire for an increasingly managerial style in public service isclear. Everything will depend on the political balance of power between
City Council and the social movements, which need to defend the model.
Although the new municipal government has reiterated its commitment
to the project, many politicians and officials are still very reluctant tofacilitate participation by the Observatory in the City Council’s internal
assessment processes and legislative proposals, and this aversion willneed to be overcome.
In order to surmount these misgivings and such reluctance, it will be necessary to do things properly, work thoroughly, maintain a firm commit-

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ment to the project and its objectives, multiply and strengthen channels
for dialogue and collaboration, reinforce the project’s support networks
and adopt an attitude of patience and persistence. Right now, the continuity of the Observatory depends on the strong conviction of its supporters and on the perception among the main actors that it represents
a worthwhile political playing field. This demonstrates that it is difficult
to make the transition to these participatory models without empowering
citizens first.
With regards to the second challenge around the co-production of public
policy and collaborative governance, when the City Council remunicipalised the service it declared that its objective was to ‘take a step further
and define a new phase and culture of citizen participation in the management of the city’s common goods’.
The discussions and negotiations required to launch the Observatory
were lengthy and intense. Such debates are essential to define thenature of the Observatory and its place within the City Council. It is aquestion of defining what we want this ‘new phase and culture of citizen
participation’ to look like. It will need to be the result of an agreement
and shared commitment. For example, how will the different actors –local government, public water operator Taigua, the Observatory andother relevant organisations at the municipal level – coordinate with eachother? What are the roles and responsibilities of each actor? Does thiscoordination require specific spaces? How will information be managed?
And, in general terms, how do we design the new policy on water?
Concerning the third challenge, which relates to the different ways ofunderstanding social mandates among the social groups, it is worthemphasising that the Observatory is the result of the city’s social andpolitical actors placing their faith in collaboration and consensus-building
for co-production of public policy and collaborative governance. This
determination means devoting time and effort to discussion and forging

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agreements among actors with different points of view. But participatingin local government also means working within a highly bureaucraticsystem, which implies a time commitment that may be exhausting forsocial groups.
Not every group is in favour of this strategy and some question whether
it is the most effective one for promoting certain ideas. They ask who
wins and who loses in these processes, how resources are distributed,
how power relations are transformed, how decisions are taken, who
benefits, and what degree of legitimacy the decisions have. Consensus
is necessary to take public policies forward. But social gains are
exercises in counter-power8 and are born from dissent. This is why the
civic-deliberative and consensus-building process represented by theObservatory is sometimes viewed unfavourably. Even if the Observatory
has only been operating for a short time, there are already some tangible
results, such as the development of a training proposal in the form ofeducational activities within schools and proposals for research work.
In addition, the working groups are organising social reflection days,
and work is being done to prepare assessment reports and proposals on
how to define and implement the human right to water in the city, how
citizen oversight of public services can be defined and put in practice,
how to achieve transparency, what indicators should be used for theevaluation and monitoring of the service, what is the quality of the water
we consume, what are the implications of different forms of water use(particularly on health), how can we act as responsible consumers, whatis the water footprint of the city and its activities, and how can we make
improvements from the circular economy perspective.
The Observatory is a very new process. It is a great achievement thatcame after six years of work by many of the city’s social groups, but at
the time of writing it had only been running for nine months. As such,it remains an experiment and it is only with time that it will be able todemonstrate its effectiveness.

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Box I‘Write water, read democracy’
This is a slogan deeply rooted in the battle to recover the publicmanagement of water throughout the world. In Terrassa, it has
been mentioned repeatedly and we have our own reading of its
meaning. The European Union Framework Directive on Water
introduced the notion of ‘active public participation’, which wasthen inserted in the legal framework that has developed since.
But in Terrassa, the word ‘participation’ is no longer usefulfor understanding each other. It is used by political groups,
governments and public administration in general, but we havecome to realise that they use it to mean something completely
different from what we, grassroots groups and citizen movements,
mean by it. This is why we need to use new words and seek new
definitions. So, instead, we talk about spaces for collaborationand consensus-building, collaborative networks, collaborative
governance, co-production of public policy, social empowerment,
citizen oversight, citizens sharing responsibility, governance forsustainability, a new political culture, a new social culture and a
new water culture.
The inclusion of these new words in the city’s political vocabulary
is disconcerting to political groups and the government, but theold words no longer help us to solve problems. This is, without adoubt, the main social and political battle in the city.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Míriam Planas is an activist with Engineering Without
Borders in Catalonia and spokesperson for Aigua ésVida (Water is Life), an organisation that campaigns toremunicipalise water in the Barcelona region and bring itback to public control.
Juan Martínez is the first president of Terrassa Water
Observatory, appointed by the Plenary. He is a memberof Taula de l’Aigua de Terrassa and is part of the UNESCO
Chair on Sustainability at Universitat Politècnica deCatalunya.

Endnotes
1

Planas, M. (2017) ‘Una ola ciudadana reivindica unos servicios públicos y democráticos de agua
en los municipios catalanes’, in S. , and (eds.) Remunicipalización: Cómo ciudades y ciudadanía están escribiendo el futuro de los servicios públicos, pp.162-172. Amsterdam: TNI et
al. Available at: https://www.tni.org/files/publication-downloads/remunicipalizacion_como_ciudades_y_ciudadania_estan_escribiendo_el_futuro_de_los_servicios_publicos.pdf

2

Taula de l’Aigua de Terrassa (2017) La remunicipalización del agua en Terrassa. Available at:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_WhhRdbb1CoZzUwOGQ3cE9Rbk0

3

Taigua, Acuerdos municipales: https://www.taigua.cat/es/acuerdos-municipales/

4

Observatorio de l’Aigua de Terrassa (2019) ‘Pla de Treball’, Plenary 21 March. Available at:https://drive.google.com/file/d/12a9-xKpyh2h1isJ7aLIAYW7tP1VnsUE1/

5

Observatorio de l’Aigua de Terrassa (2019) Grups de treball, 25 April. Available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q1XPszhcPMpoNwWFpLMi0f7sDobi9fDT

6Social control is understood as the mechanism and process to guarantee society’s access to
information, technical representation and participation throughout the decision-making process around public services. It is understood as the participation of society in formulation andimplementation of policies. Planning, regulation, inspection, evaluation and services delivery
should be under social control.

7

Lucchetti, H. (2019) TFM. Estudi de Cas de l’Observatori de l’Aigua de Terrassa. Màster
Interuniversitari en Polítiques Socials i Acció Comunitària, UAB-IGOP Institut de Govern i
Polítiques Públiques. Available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cQkpd1CONCmDxiYe4gSBEb-KCN9gisOs/

8

Castro, M. y Martínez, M. (2016) ‘No hay participación sin redistribución del poder’. Diagonal
Periódico, 24 April. Available at: https://www.diagonalperiodico.net/movimientos/30226-no-hayparticipacion-sin-redistribucion-del-poder.html

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