water uses, development of agreements among users for water transfers to deal with shortages, and establishing sub-basin management organizations (on the view that the river basins are in certain respects too big for effective participation and efficient management). The office of the Water Secretariat and the Andalusian Water Council would evolve to adopt and pursue some of these initiatives if the central government gave them the opportunity. This, of course, is the view from the regional government’s perspective. Not all organizations in the basin shared the regional government’s vision for its greater role in managing the basin’s water resources.

# <u>Other</u>

Although not a consumptive use, hydropower generation is a large non-consumptive user of water in the basin. Economic development and population growth expand the need for reliable and affordable electricity, much of which has been supplied by hydropower facilities sited on the tributaries and (in a few instances) the main stem of the Guadalquivir river. CH Guadalquivir’s regulation of surface water flows has material ramifications for the hydroelectric industry, and the energy sector has representation on some CH boards.

# **6. Changes in Spanish Water Law and Policy Since the 1970s, and Their Implications for Guadalquivir Basin Management**

This section describes some important transformations in national water law and policy that are essential to understanding the current functions and performance of water resource management institutions in the Guadalquivir river basin. Because the structures and responsibilities of CHs are established by the central government, a synopsis of these national policy changes is vital to an understanding of basin level management activities in the Guadalquivir basin. Details of the evolution of Spanish water law and policy before and after 1985 are available in Giansante (2003; see also del Moral and Sauri.1999).

The national water law prior to 1985 had been in place since 1879. It was badly outdated, reflecting priorities of a different era and failing to account for emerging concerns about water management and water quality. Regulations of new water demands and wastewater discharges had been pasted on to the existing system during the 1960s and 1970s without revision to the basic water law. As one set of observers characterized the situation, the scope of regulated water uses was rose but the coherence of water policy declined. (Costeja et al. 2002: 20) In response to these and other circumstances, the 1985 water law represented a major reform of water policy in Spain. It was not a product of grass-roots reformism, however, having been designed primarily by expert personnel at the national level,. Four principles of the 1985 law were: 1) integrated management of water resources (surface water and groundwater, water quantity and water quality); 2) the river basin as the appropriate unit or scale of management; 3) user participation; and 4) reliance on water planning to balance social and economic development with ecological sustainability (Alcon Albertos 2002). These principles are intended to guide the fulfillment of the law’s purposes, which were: 21