## 4 Findings and Discussion  
### Water Footprint of Spain  
The tourism industry conditions the Spanish water footprint through tourist activities, hotels' locations, and the summer season when the destination receives the greatest number of tourists during the year. Figure 3 presents the volume of water supplied to the network by the Spanish community, showing the Andalusian community as the territory where a greater volume of water was supplied in the period analysed (2000-2020), followed by Catalonia, Madrid, Comunidad Valenciana, Castilla and Leon, and Galicia, among others. It is no coincidence that the largest concentration of hotels in Spain is localised in Andalusia (1768 hotels), Catalonia (1630), Galicia (1241), Castilla and Leon (956), Madrid (864), and Comunidad Valenciana (845) in the year 2021 [31; 74]. Furthermore, these regions have the highest population density in Spain [75]. Therefore, the volume of water supplied in Spanish regions can be conditioned by a high population density and the number of hotels. These results coincide with those of [PERSON] et al. [76], and [PERSON] et al. [67] who revealed that hotel and population density indicators increase water consumption in local and regional territories. Nevertheless, [PERSON] et al. [77] note that the volume of water used for golf irrigation in Spain is extremely small compared with agricultural irrigation. Besides, it is strange that Andalusia and Catalonia regions have unfortunately failed to address the water consumption by tourists at hotel establishments in the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, or even the Comunidad Valenciana. On the other hand, Table 1 shows us the distribution of supplied water by category or activity in Spain from 2006 to 2020. Spanish households concentrate the majority of supplied water with 28.6 million cubic metres in the period examined; the industry sector ranks second with 4.4 million cubic metres; in third place is municipal consumption (3.7 million); the service sector is in fourth place with 1,8 million; tourist and recreational use with 1.6 million occupies the fifth position; agriculture and livestock rank sixth with 467,677 thousand cubic metres; and the seventh and last is the building sector with 232,084 thousand cubic metres. That is, in percentage terms, Spanish households (69.7%), the industry sector (10.7%), and municipal consumption (9.2%) are the main three water consumers in Spain (see Figure 4). \begin{table}
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These data reveal that local and regional governments are aware of the importance of supplying water to Spanish regions and their residents. Indeed, Spanish local governments are obliged to ensure water availability for households (Article 26.1 of Law 7/1985 Regulation of Competences of Local Authorities) and improve the efficiency of water resources, but each city and municipality sets its own tariffs. In the end, it is obvious that water consumption is an economic component for governments and private companies to generate income. From a financial point of view, Spanish citizens pay for water services, and these taxes are revenues for municipalities. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [78] note that most of the water tariffs applied in Spanish cities are not justified on the basis of efficiency, equity, or environmental purposes. This heterogeneous tariff runs counter to equity principles and  
Figure 4: Percentage of water supplied by category in Spain from 2006 to 2020. Source. Our elaboration from [54,55]. Figure 3: Volume of water supplied to the network by the Spanish community (2000–2020). Note. INE does not provide 2015, 2017, and 2019 data. Source. Our elaboration from [54]. can send the wrong signal to users about water scarcity and resource sustainability [79]. [PERSON] et al. [80] suggest that local and regional governments need to improve the water infrastructure to increase the efficiency level of water supply and help reduce the water consumption by citizens.