Abstract
This book argues that Turkey cannot implement IWRM and therefore would have huge problems in implementing the WFD, the EU’s common water policy. The main reason for being unable to implement IWRM is Turkey’s particular political culture, which is fundamentally different from the Northern European political culture in which IWRM developed.
The one Spanish word that no foreigner can avoid learning is mañana – tomorrow (literally, ‘the morning’). Whenever it is conceivably possible, the business of today is put off until mañana. This is so notorious that even Spaniards themselves make jokes about it. In Spain nothing, from a meal to a battle, ever happens at the appointed time. As a general rule things happen too late, but just occasionally - just so that you shan’t even be able to depend on their happening late - they happen too early…In theory I rather admire the Spaniards for not sharing our Northern time-neurosis, but unfortunately I share it myself.
George Orwell (2007, pg. 13–14), Homage to Catalonia
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Notes
- 1.
General Franco was the leader of the nationalist forces that overthrew the Spanish democratic republic in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). After the Civil War he became the head of the government of Spain until 1973 and the head of State until 1975. Retrieved from Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
- 2.
Swyngedouw’s work takes this argument and analyses it by reflecting on Spanish political culture and water policy.
- 3.
- 4.
Swyngedouw highlights that: “Some of these divisions more or less coincided with major river basins (Ebro, Tajo, Duero); others (as in the South) had a much closer correspondence to provincial boundaries’.
- 5.
Spanish regenerationism was a political school of thought that appeared in late nineteenth century Spain. The main aim of the movement was to find a scientific answer to Spain’s downfall. After this movement, the word regenerationism, became famous in Spain and used to mean protest to political corruption.
- 6.
Moreno (2002, pg. 406) explains this phenomenon: “Decentralization and federalization in Spain has developed in an inductive manner, step by step. Both Jacobin centralists encroached on sections of the public administration and on some influential Spanish parliamentary parties together with representatives of the minority nationalisms (Basque and Catalan) have favored bilateral and ad hoc centre-periphery relationships. They have shown reluctance to encourage horizontal and multilateral processes of decision-making. This attitude is a major obstacle for the natural unfolding of the Estado de las Autonomias into a federal-like system of government. The decentralization process currently still needs to adapt new forms of intergovernmental relationships especially at the level of institutional collaboration. Autonomous authorities have to a large extent, transcended patterns of internal confrontation in Spain. The deep and widespread process of decentralization can be regarded as one of progressive federalization in line with the asymmetrical nature of Spain’s composition.” Another interesting account of decentralisation and federalism in Spain can also be found in: Colomer (1998).
- 7.
This debate is addressed in Cabezas (2012, pg. 25).
- 8.
Regarding the NHP being more expensive than the alternatives, see: Garrido (2003), p. 468.
- 9.
Popular newspapers in Spain cover Ebro issues very often.
- 10.
Refer again to Arrojo’s work for a detailed documentation of these items.
- 11.
Regarding this debate, see: Llamas Perez-Picazo (2001).
This paper argues the feasibility of Ebro if full cost recovery is used both from farmers’ and state perspective where it is proved that farmers and users would not buy Ebro water because there would be cheaper alternatives.
- 12.
The groundwater management issue in Spain is a very complex one and a great example of the failure of integration. Albiac and Murua (2009) explain how groundwater resources are under pressure not only from intensive agricultural practices but also ‘massive overdraft’ due to illegal wells, which they estimate could number above one million. Institutionally, they argue that basin authorities in Southern Spain do not control the number of wells or the abstraction levels for that matter because it makes no difference as the extraction of water is being used on highly profitable crops on which they cannot impose recovery costs. Cost recovery is one of the main principles of the WFD and while inland and water rich parts of the Spain seem to have this relatively under control, in the area of southern Spain where there is a real place for cost recovery principles and pricing as incentives for the prevention of environmental externalities and degradation, there is practically no such system in place and even if there was the water bureaucracy believes it would make absolutely no sense and bring no change in the current state of affairs. Another mismanagement example where Spanish water policy is absolutely contradictory to the WFD is the Upper Guadiana diversion scheme. The Plan of Upper Guadiana was prepared to control and minimize the overexploitation and abstraction of La-Mancha Aquifer and also aimed at restoring a wetland and natural park in the area. In this case, Spanish water bureaucracy proposed more investments to reduce the overdraft however; this was not successful in supporting the efforts of curbing illegal wells, which number around 22,000 as compared to 16,000 authorized wells in the same area. This sent wrong messages to farmers who opened illegal wells and also to those who have legal wells, which are overexploited. It is argued that 4 billion Euros worth of investment did not look into the monetary costs of losing a very important wetland but also did not consider how to give the right signals to farmers whose activities cause the problem.
- 13.
In fact for an example of such praise see: Margeli (2011).
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Oktem, O. (2016). Comparing Political Cultures of Turkey and Spain. In: Water Politics and Political Culture. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21479-5_6
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