operation of treatment facilities has not kept pace with the quantities of waste produced and discharged in the basin. According to the Guadalquivir Basin Plan (CH Guadalquivir 1995), only 50% of municipal wastewater received secondary treatment prior to discharge, and the vast majority of the other 50% received no treatment at all (47.56%, with the remaining 2.44% receiving primary treatment only).

# **5. The River Basin Authority (CH Guadalquivir) and Basin Stakeholders**

# **_5.1 The River Basin Authority, CH Guadalquivir_**

Details of the historical evolution of the Spanish _Confederaciones Hidrograficas_ (CHs), and of the internal organization of the CH Guadalquivir, are presented in Giansante (2003). Created by the central government in 1927, CH Guadalquivir was, for much of its existence, a hydro-technical agency devoted to the construction of dams, reservoirs, and water conveyance facilities, while water law administration and management of water uses were handled by a separate agency. At times, however, the central government merged these functions into one basinwide authority. The principal eras of separation and integration are depicted in Figure 1. Since 1985 the CHs have had combined responsibility for physical infrastructure and water use management in the basins, and thus are currently supposed to function as integrated water resource management agencies at the river basin scale.

CHs are not autonomous. They are under the direction of the central government or regional governments (CAs), depending on whether they cover an inter-regional river basin or an intra-regional one. National water law adopted in 1985 (and an associated 1987 decree) recognized 13 CHs—9 in inter-regional and 4 in intra-regional basins. The intra-regional CHs were supposed be transferred to the regional governments. This has not occurred in all cases. For example, the CH for the Sur river basin, which lies entirely within the CA of Andalucia, has remained under control of the central government.

The principal responsibilities of CH Guadalquivir are established by the 1985 national water law and 1999 amendments to it, by the Guadalquivir Basin Plan and National Water Plan, and by EU regulations that are implemented at the river basin level. <u>Water works: the hydraulic works function has consistently been part of the CH’s</u> portfolio—construction, financing, and operation of dams and reservoirs for flow regulation and water storage. In the Guadalquivir basin, reservoir operations largely determine the surface water flows available to water users.

<u>Water planning: CHs are responsible for developing basin plans and for other</u> planning activities—collection and analysis of data about physical conditions of the basin and water uses, designation of sub-basin management units, and conformity of basin plans to national and EU guidelines. The most recent basin plans were submitted to the national government in 1995 for approval, were approved in 1998, and were integrated into the 2001 national water plan.

<u>Monitoring of water resource conditions: the CH has responsibilities for</u> monitoring river flows to anticipate and identify flooding or insufficiency, and for monitoring water quality throughout the river basin. Monitoring is performed by CH staff.

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