Os recursos “não convencionais” na gestão da água: ensinamentos da experiência espanhola

Abstract

The Mediterranean conditions present in most part of Spain establish major challenges associated with rainfall irregularity and frequent droughts. The "imbalances" between "dry Spain", Mediterranean, and "wet Spain", Atlantic, were adopted as argument to justify the strong and traditional bias of the hydraulic policies for the water supply increase. However, since the Water Framework Directive, adopted in 2000, the country faces the challenges of "modernizing" and implementing a management framework with a greener and less structuralist perspective. In this sense, the valorization of “unconventional” water resources has been one of the most promoted strategies in the country for meeting the demands, particularly the desalination and the treated effluents use. This paper presents the characteristics, challenges, advances and critics to the Spanish experience of "unconventional" water resources use, including historical, institutional and legal references. Despite the important development in recent decades, these resources are not without criticism. The main ones involve the costs of desalinated water and the lack of public incentive to treated effluent use and domestic water reuse. Even with a specific historical and geographical context, the Spanish scenario may provide useful references to the Brazilian society.