According to Article 19 of the Water Act (see annex
n° 2), the river basins which flow through more than one
Autonomous Region constitute basin Water Boards - referred to
as River Basin Authorities (Confederaciones Hidrográficas)
- which are entities with their own legal status, different from
that of the State, which are assigned, for administrative purposes,
to the Ministry of Environment (ME), and which have fully autonomous
powers.
In this respect, the concept of river basin is to
be understood as the territory through which water flows on the
way to the sea, through a network of secondary or sub-basins which
converge on one single major river. The river basin, as a resources
management unit, is considered indivisible. Thus, the territorial
scope of the basin Authorities includes one or more indivisible
river basins, whose only limit would be an international boundary.
For administrative purposes, the aquifers lying within
their territorial limits also depend on the basin Authorities.
The principles that underlie the carrying out of
the State functions in matters concerning water, through the River
Basin Authorities, are as follows :
1. Management, integral treatment, water economy, deconcentration, decentralisation, co-ordination, efficiency and user participation.
2. respect for the integrity of the river basin, the water systems and hydrological cycle.
3. Compatibility of the public management of water
with territorial structuring environmental protection and recovery
of natural environments.
The functions of River Basin Authorities are as follows
:
a) To draw up, monitor and review the basin Water Resources Plan.
b) To administer and control the public water domain.
c) To administer and control the uses of public interest or those which affect more than one Autonomous region.
d) The planning, construction and operating of the works constructed with the Body's own funds and those which are commissioned by the State.
e) Those arising from the agreements made with the
autonomous Regions, Local Councils and other public or private
entities, or those entered into with individuals on a private
basis.
In practice, the River Basin Authorities undertake
the construction of all the hydraulic works of the State, including
irrigation works and, not only they do manage the irrigation zones
of public interest that have been developed by the state, but
they also manage the water resources for the rest of the irrigation
zones operated by private individuals.
They have the following powers and tasks for carrying
out these functions :
a) The grating of authorisation and licenses as regards public water domain, with the exception of those concerning works and activities of general interest to the state, which are the jurisdiction of the ME.
b) Inspection and surveillance to ensure that the conditions stipulated in the licences and authorisations are complied with where public water domain is concerned.
c) carrying out gauging activities, hydrology studies, collecting information on flooding and water quality control.
d) Studying, planning, carrying out, conserving, operating the works included in their own plans, and others that have been commissioned to them.
e) Definition of the quality aims and programmes in accordance with water resources planning.
f) To provide all types of technical services related
to their specific aims and, when requested to do so, to assess
the State Administration, Autonomous Regions, Local Councils and
other public and private entities, plus private individuals.
Furthermore, the Autonomous Regions which have jurisdiction
over the public water domain in river basins whose limits lie
totally within their territory, may set up their own administration
in accordance with the above-mentioned principles, as long as
the users representation on the collegiate bodies of their inter-regional
Administration is not less than one third of the total membership
thereof.
On the one hand, the River Basin Authorities have
an organic structure for carrying out their administrative and
technical functions and, on the other hand, they have a series
of collegiate bodies which give them what could be a sharing structure.
Both structures will be described below.
ORGANIC STRUCTURE OF THE RIVER BASIN AUTHORITIES
The River Basin Authorities are headed by the Chairman
who, in his capacity as General Manager, is appointed or dismissed
at Cabinet Meetings, on the recommendation of the ME.
The Chairman of a River Basin Authority has the following
functions :
a) The legal representation of the Authority.
b) To chair the Governing Body, the Users Assemblies, the Reservoir Discharge Committee and the Manager Advisory Board.
c) To ensure that the agreements with the collegiate bodies are in keeping with the legislation in force.
d) To fulfil the highest managerial and executive functions of the Authority.
e) To carry out any other function which is not expressly
the duty of another body.
Within the function referred to in Points d) and
e), the Chairman is also especially responsible for the following
tasks :
a) To give consent to the Authority's plan of activity.
b) To order that the decisions reached by the board of Governor's and the rest of the collegiate bodies be carried out.
c) To fulfil the Authority's own contracting functions.
d) To authorise any expenditure that is charged to the Authority's budget and to order the corresponding payments.
e) To act as the Personnel and Services Manager.
f) To grant licences and authorisations for use of the public water domain and authorisation concerning the water and riverbed policy system, except where such powers are the responsibility of the ME.
g) To apply the standards contained in the Public Domain Regulations where water and riverbed policy is concerned, including the penalty system for infringements, within the scope of his powers.
h) To deal with administrative appeals that arise from the decisions made by the Users' Committee or the basin Water Board itself, with the exception of those whose content require them to be dealt with by the Authority's Governing Body or the ME.
I) To enforce the tax system where it applies to the public water domain.
j) To authorise the drawing up and final approval of works, installations and supplies projects, when these have to be carried out with the Authority's own funds.
k To carry out expropriation functions where water is concerned, in accordance with the terms of the legislation in force at that time.
l) To inform the Hydraulic Works Administration of the social consequences of the projects for works that the ME has commissioned to the Authority.
m) To inform of proposals for appointments and dismissals
for the posts of Water Commissioner, Technical Manager and General
Secretary.
Four administrative units are directly dependent
upon the Chairman :
a) The Water Commission
b) The Technical Directorate
d) The Secretariat General
d) The Water Resources Planning Office
The Delegate Comptroller, the General Comptroller
for the State Administration and the Legal Consultantship, are
also assigned to the Chairman.
The basic functions of each of these units are as
follows :
In accordance with the Royal Decree 984/1989, of
28th July, it has the following functions :
a) The proposals for granting licences and authorisations where water and riverbeds of public domain are concerned, together with the establishing rights of way, boundaries and modulations.
b) keeping a Water Record, the Private waters catalogue and Returns on wastewater discharge.
c) Proposals for solving problems arising from policies water and riverbeds.
d) Inspection and surveillance of works that result from licenses and authorisations being granted in the public water domain.
e) Inspection and monitoring of the operations involved in all public water-use whoever the holder of such rights may be and no matter what legal system is applicable.
f) Dealing with the requirements for setting up User's Communities and giving approval to their rules and Statues, together with those regarding incidents involving such Communities.
g) Questions concerning the inland water system, including the performing of gauging activities and hydrological surveys.
h) Studying and proposing the water rates for the use of the public water domain and the waste disposal rates.
i) Analysis and control of inland water quality and proposals for monitoring the water quality programmes.
j) Running the river protection service.
k) Works carried out with the sole aim of conserving the public river channels.
l) Preparation and monitoring of quantitative statistics with regard to water.
m) Consumption statistics broken down into different
use categories.
In order to carry out these activities, the Water
Commission is subdivided into three basic work areas :
- Water Quality
- Management of the Public Water Domain
- Users' System
For the purpose of simplification, we could say that
the Water Commission is the unit within the River Basin Authority,
that carries out the functions of the Water Quality Administration.
In the particular case of the irrigation perimeters,
the Waters Commission plays a basic role in organising the setting
up of the Irrigators' Communities, giving its approval to the
Regulations and Statutes.
All the water users, and especially those who use
this resource for irrigation, are required to form Users' Communities
which, where irrigation is concerned, are referred to specifically
as Irrigators' Communities.
These Users' Communities function as Public Corporations
assigned to the Basin Water Board whose duty, through the Waters
Commission, is to ensure that the Regulations and Statutes are
being complied with, and that water is being used in an orderly
way.
The same provision - Royal Decree 984/1989 of 28th
July - bestows the following functions upon the Technical Directorate
:
a) Studying and drawing up the project, directing and operating the works and uses financed with the Basin Authorities funds or those commissioned by the State, other public administration bodies, other public or private entities or private individuals.
b) The management of resources with a view to achieving acceptable co-ordination of the individual, collective and social interests where uses are concerned.
c) The technical inspection and approval of the projects that are to be financed with the basin Water Board's own funds.
d) Activities designed to achieve a more rational water use.
e) The study and proposal of control rates for water use.
f) The carrying out of reservoir discharge orders.
g) The appointment of Managers and Works Inspectors.
In order to carry out these activities, the Technical
Directorate is subdivided into the following three basic work
areas
- Operations
- projects Works
- Specific Activities
Furthermore, it could be said that the Technical
Directorate is the unit, within the River basin Authority, which
carries out the functions that correspond to the Hydraulic Works
Administration.
It is e Technical Directorate which, through the
Projects and Works Area, plans and construct water control works,
large irrigation channels and the basic networks for drainage
and roads for the irrigation zones.
Through the operations area, it manages the resource
stored in the State reservoirs, supplying water to all the irrigation
zones, both public and private, and directly utilising the public
irrigation zones.
The same Royal Decree bestows the following functions
upon the secretariat General :
a) The management of matters relevant to the workings of the Governing Body, Water Advisory Board, Users' Assemblies, and functioning as the Secretariat of these bodies.
b) General Registry, the Body's internal system;
management of economic and financial activities; internal accounting;
paymasters' office, personnel matters; dealing with expropriations,
appeals, complaints and claims; contract management; estate management
and drawing up legal reports.
This has the following functions :
a) The compiling of and, where appropriate, carrying out of the works and studies necessary for drawing up, monitoring and reviewing the Water Resources Plan for the basin.
b) To inform of the compatibility between the activities proposed by the users and the Water resources Plan.
c) To draw up plans for the restructuring of extractions
in aquifers that have been defined as over-exploited or at risk
of being so, and of others undergoing a salinisation process.
SHARING STRUCTURE OF THE RIVER BASIN AUTHORITIES
The River Basin Authorities have a series of collegiate
bodies, in which both the various administrative levels and the
users participate trough their representatives. Governing bodies
exist, as do management and planning bodies, and they are as follows
:
- Collegiate governing bodies :
Governing Body
- Collegiate management bodies :
Users' Assembly
Operations Boards
Reservoir Discharge Committee
Works Boards
- Collegiate planing bodies :
Basin water Advisory Board
We will now go on to describe all these collegiate
bodies, basically in accordance with Royal decree 927/1988 of
29th July, which endorsed the Regulation concerning the Public
administration of Water and Water Resources Planning.
This collegiate body consists of the following :
a) Representing the State Administration, one member from each of the following Ministers: Public Works, Environment, Economy and the treasury; Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Industry and Power, defence and the Home Office.
b) The Autonomous Regions with a surface area and population in the river basin, will have proportional representation as a function of the above two magnitudes.
c) At least one third of the total Board membership will represent the users. Uses involving water supply, irrigation and hydroelectric power, will each have a minimum of one member. They will be elected by the Users' Assembly from among their own members.
d) The Water Commissioner, the Technical Director and the Head of the water Resources Planning Office will represent the basin water Board.
e) The Secretary general will be the Secretary of
the Board, with the right to speak but not to vote.
The Governing Body has the following duties :
a) To propose the Body's plan of action
b) To formulate the budgets thereof
c) To arrange, where necessary, for the credit operations required for the specific management aims
d) To prepare the matters that have to be submitted to the Water Advisory Council
e) To make agreements concerning provisions relative to the Body's estate
f) To declare aquifers to be in a state of over-exploitation and to determine the prohibition perimeters with regard to new groundwater licences and aquifer protection perimeters.
g) To deliberate over those matters that are submitted
to it for consideration by any of its members.
The aim of the Users' Assembly - collegiate management
bodies consisting of all those users who form part of the Operations
Board is to co-ordinate the operation of hydraulic works and the
water resources throughout the basin, without prejudice to the
licensing system and the users' rights.
The following may attend the meetings of the Users'
Assembly, with the right to speak, but not to vote :
a) One representative from both the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries and the Ministry of Industry and Power.
b) Two representatives from the Autonomous Regions where at least 25% of their territory lies within the river basin.
c) One representative from the Autonomous Regions where less than 25% of their territory lies within the river basin.
d) As representatives of the basin Water Board :
The Waters Commissioner
The Technical Director
The Head of the Water Resources Planning Office.
The Users' Assembly has the following duties :
a) To be acquainted with the matters that arise between two or more operations Boards and propose solutions to the Chairman.
b) To be familiar with and to discuss, where appropriate, those matters that the Chairman sees fit to submit, and especially the Annual Report on the Body's activities.
c) To provide information concerning the annual income and expenditure situation of the Operations Boards.
d) To propose user representatives for the reservoir
Discharge Committee.
The Users' Assembly must meet once a year, and special
meetings can be called as long as at least one third of the Assembly's
members make such a request, or when the Chairman decides that
they must be held.
The Secretary General of the basin Water Board will
be the Secretary of the Assembly, with the right to speak, but
not to vote.
The aim of the Operations Boards, is to co-ordinate
the operation of the hydraulic works and the water resources of
the river or rivers, stretches and reaches or hydrogeological
unit, whose uses are especially interlinked, taking care to respect
the corresponding licenses and authorisations.
The scope of the Operations Board is determined by
the Chairman of the basin Water Board, once the Governing Body
has been informed.
Each Operations Board consists of the following :
a) The Technical Director who will act as Chairman.
b) The members of the basin Water Board that are appointed for the purpose by the Chairman, they will have the right to speak, but not to vote.
c) The representatives of the users affected, who
may be accompanied by a maximum of two advisers for the questions
on the Agenda that are to be dealt with. In all cases, only the
representative Members will have the right to speak and vote.
One member from each of the following Ministries:
Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Industry and Power, may attend
the Operations Board meetings, as advisers with the right to speak,
but not to vote.
A civil servant appointed by the Technical Director,
will act as Secretary at each Operations Board meeting;
The appointment of representative Members lasts for
six years, as from the date of their scheduled first appearance
in that capacity at a meeting of the Board, and every Member is
entitled to apply for re-election;
With a view to ensuring the smooth-running of the
Board's activities, half the Members are replaced every three
years.
The Operations Boards hold two meetings per year,
and special meetings can be called when the Chairman decides that
they are necessary, either upon his own initiative, or at the
request of the of at least one third of the representative Members.
The duties of the Reservoir Discharge Committee are
to deliberate upon and formulate proposals to the Chairman of
the Authority, regarding the most suitable system for discharging
water from the reservoirs and aquifers in the basin, as well as
filling them up, taking into account the rights of the different
users.
Once the proposals are by the members with both the right to speak and to vote, the Chairman will obtain a report from the Waters Commissioner, the Technical director and the Head of Operations. In the event of the proposal being unanimous and the reports favourable, the proposal becomes biding; in other circumstances the Chairman decides on the basis of the background.
The Reservoir Discharge Committee must meet at least
twice a year, once in October to prepare the reservoir inflow
programme, and again the following Spring, to review the previous
programmes in the light of the resources available, and must held
further meetings whenever the Chairman calls them or at least
one third of the members request such a meeting to be held.
The Reservoir Discharge Committee either meets in
Full or by Sections. It acts in Sections when dealing with one
reservoir system or more than one reservoir system which is independently
operated, and with no connection with the remaining systems. In
such cases, the Chairman may delegate his functions to the Technical
Director or the Waters Commissioner.
The Waters Commissioner, the Technical Director,
the Head of Operations, who will act as Secretary, are ex-officio
members; together with one representative from the Ministry of
Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, and one representative from the
Ministry of Industry and Power, plus one representative from the
" Red Electrica Espanola, Sociedad Anonima ".
These members are present regardless of whether the sessions are
Full meetings of Section meetings.
The users' representative are appointed by the Governing
Body at the proposal of the Users' Assembly, in such a way that
all the users and the Entities that have rights with respect to
a particular reservoir are represented either individually or
collectively on the Commission. These Members take part in the
Sessions that they are affected by and in the Full meetings.
All Members have the right to speak and vote, except
the Water Commissioner, the Technical Director and the Head of
Operations, who may not vote.
In the event of floods or other phenomena of an exceptional nature, the Chairman of the Authority, the Waters Commissioner, the Technical Director and the head of Operations, automatically set up a Permanent Committee. This Permanent Committee make take whatever measures it thinks fit, including filling or discharging the reservoirs, without having to consult the
Reservoir Discharge Committee, but they must immediately
inform the Hydraulic Works Administration of their actions and
likewise inform the Commission of the set of measures that have
been taken, all of this being done without prejudice to questions
involving Civil Protection.
At the request of the future users of works for which
approval has been given, the Governing Body of the River Basin
Authority in question shall set up the corresponding Works board,
in which the users will participate, with w view to their being
directly informed of the developments and incidents that arise
with regard to such works, regardless of whether these works are
being constructed at the exclusive expense of the State, or whether
the users themselves are making an economic contribution thereto,
as long as the total cost of the works exceeds one thousand million
pesetas (data from 1988)n a figure which is automatically updated
every five years, on the basis of fluctuations in the annual retail
price indexes.
The Works Boards are constituted by :
a) The Technical Director, who is Chairman
b) The Head of the corresponding Area or Department
c) The basin Water Board personnel in charge of directing the works
e) A variable number of user's representatives, in
such a way that the interest of the different uses, both present
and future, are catered for.
At the Technical Director's proposal, the Governing
Body establishes the number of Members, on the basis of the different
types of use involved, and makes appointments as the different
groups of users are set up, and at their request.
An officer civil servant from the basin Water Board
and appointed by the Technical Director, will act as Secretary
of the Works Board.
The functions of the Works Board will be performed
only until such time as the works are completed.
The duties of this collegiate planning body are to
provide the Government, through the ME, with information concerning
the Water Resources Pan for the basin and the later reviews thereof.
Likewise, it may furnish information regarding questions of general
interest to the basin and those involving an improved structuring,
operation and protection of the public water domain.
It is made up of :
a) Representing the state Administration, one member
from each of the following Ministries: Public Works, Environment,
Economy and the Treasury; the Home Office; Agriculture, food and
Fisheries; Industry and Power; Public Administration and Defence.
b) The number of members representing the Autonomous
Regions shall not be less than indicated in Section a) above,
and will be determined on the basis of the surface area and population
of each Autonomous Region within the basin.
c) The Water Commissioner, the Technical Director
and the Head of the Water Resources Planning Office (the latter
with the right to speak, but not to vote), will represent the
Technical Services of the basin water Board.
d) The users will have at least one third of the total representation, and these members will be elected by the Users' Assembly respecting the proportions that exist in that Assembly.
Furthermore, the professional organisations which
are most firmly established in the agricultural Sector, may appoint
one representative on the Board for every fifty members, or fraction
thereof, that constitute it.
e) The ecologists organisations that are most firmly
established, will be represented by one member- appointed by the
ME, at the suggestion from those organisations - for every fifty
members, or fraction thereof, that constitute the Board.
f) The Secretary of the Board, with the right to
speak, but not to vote.
The Water Advisory Board may act in the Full Meetings
and the Committee. At least one planning Committee must exist
for each of the water resources plans that are envisaged within
the territorial scope of the basin Water Board.
This Planning Committee for the basin water Advisory
Board also has a representation that is proportional to that of
the Water Advisory Board itself, and the users participation must
be at least one third of the total on the Committee.
The Water Resources Planning Office of the River
Basin Authority provides technical support for the Water Advisory
Board.