Water and territory New legal reflections

Abstract

In Spain the controversy over the jurisdiction distribution over water and hydraulic works between the State and the Autonomous Communities, begins with the promulgation of the Constitution in 1978 due to  the imprecise terms that it uses in art. 149.1.22. Through time and with the Constitutional Court intervention a consistent solution has been reached, based in attributing to the State the management of the water basins that cover the territory from more than one Autonomous Community (inter-community basins) and to these the management of the basins that are entirely in its territory (intra-community basins). However, it is a solution subjected to tensions and in which the last reforms of some Statutes of Autonomy pose new governance challenges. Problematic issue is usually the transfer of water resources between different territorial areas of basin hydrological planning, which usually leads to territorial conflicts (with political and social aspects) in some cases of important magnitude. Other issues with an impact are currently being discussed, as the Autonomous Communities reports about administrative procedures of statal level, existence, content and functionality of the so-called "right to water" etc ...