The legal-territorial perspective in the new models of water governance: the Spanish regulations

Abstract

Access and water supply in today’s world remains a universal problem. The Objectives of Sustainable Development (OSD) advocate a change in governance that allows for greater effectiveness in the management and use of water resources, in such a way as to ensure universal and non-discriminatory access, since this essential resource should not only to meet the direct needs of its users, but its proper management is capital to guarantee the sustainability of the Planet. In Spain, traditionally, the services of water supply have been offered by the municipalities, as entities territorially close to the citizenship, which allows them to know better the necessities of this group and, therefore, to respond to the same ones of effective and efficient way. but the European commitments made on climate change, as well as the growing concern for the environment in general and the crisis of management on water resources, in particular, oblige to revise the actions and the norms that regulate this sector. Consequently, combining the legal methodology with the DAFO analysis, the objective of this study is focused on knowing the legal norms that have been configuring the historical governance of water resources. In view of the results and despite international demands for the recognition of the human nature of the right to water, these investigations have not been reached on a legal level, as the legislation analysed deals with water as a resource not as a right. It is therefore necessary to implement a different way of governing, in which the participation of multiple actors in the formulation and execution of the political actions in water matters, to ensure adequate access and water supply to communities and citizens, as a safeguard of human dignity.