The catastrophe caused by DANA has put in the spotlight the scarce investments carried out in recent years in hydraulic infrastructure and has demonstrated the need to put on the table the lack of progress by institutions.
Hydrological Planning for the years 2022-2027 plans to allocate 37,938 million euros but their progress is far behind what could be foreseen, since the administrations have only allocated half of what would be necessary to achieve this objective.
According to the sector’s accounts, to reach the level agreed with the European Commission within the planning cycles of each six-year period, projects worth 6.3 billion euros would have to be tendered and contracted annuallybut the figure barely reaches 57% of this amount, according to the data offered by the construction employers’ association Seopan.
During the years 2022 and 2023, tenders have been carried out for 5,534 million euros, compared to the 12,600 million that would have been necessary43%. Of this amount, it is currently unknown how many projects have finally been contracted since usually a significant part of the tenders remain void.
If we go into detail about these tenders in the first two years of the third planning cycle, last year they were allocated to hydraulic infrastructures 2,261 million euros compared to 3,273 million in the previous yearwhich means that far from accelerating the investment pace with the advancement of planning, we are witnessing a 30.9% reduction in the projects that manage to get started.
The greatest deterioration was recorded in the amounts dedicated to infrastructure rehabilitation, which fell from 1,627 million in 2022 to 864 million in 2023.
Scissor
As far as new construction is concerned, the investment snip is softening but maintaining the same downward trend. While in 2022 1,645 million were allocated, this last year the figure reached 1,396 million, 15.2% less.
For dams and reservoirs, works were tendered for a total of 47.9 million in 2023. This figure is broken down into 17.6 million for new construction compared to 29.5 million in 2022, 40.4% less. Regarding the rehabilitation of existing infrastructure, the amount went from 37.4 million in 2022 to 30.3 million in 2023. And the supply and collector part followed the same path with a reduction of 18.5% in the 1,644 million that were allocated in 2022 to the 1,339 million that have been tendered in 2023.
The Water Framework Directive establishes for Member States the drafting and submission to the European Commission of their basin hydrological plans with programs of measures, environmental impact and economic analysis of the use of water to achieve environmental objectives and configuring each six-year period a new cycle. hydrological planning.
Slowness in planning
Spain has always dragged its feet with these measures. In 2009, the approval of these hydrological plans was not fulfilledwhich led to a condemnatory ruling by the European Court of Justice (CJEU) in October 2012. Subsequently, on March 7, 2016, the European Commission archived this file, after approving the plans for the second Cycle, corresponding to the years 2016-2021. This second Cycle, which received the green light on January 8, 2016, already included 16 hydrological plans, 12 under state jurisdiction and 4 under regional jurisdiction.
Subsequently, a year after the deadline, the third Cycle 2022-2027 was approved with 11,677 measures and the already explained 37,938 million euros of investment, financing the State, CCAA and local entities 46.7%, 36.3% and 10. 2%, respectively.
On February 7, 2024, Brussels took Spain before the CJEU for not having completed the review of its basin hydrological and flood risk management plans for the Canary Islands (Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and La Palma), and for having, at least, 195 illegal landfills without closing, sealing or restoring since 2008.
According to Seopan in its report Construction and Infrastructure: Balance and Strategy 2023-2024 Eurostat certifies that Public investment levels in Spain are insufficient in transport, purification and water supply infrastructure. with records 46%, 57% and 57% lower than those of 2010. In this way, the lack of nominal public investment in [2011-2022] Compared to the 2010 level in these infrastructures, it exceeds 135,000 million.
If we look up and go to the General State Budgets, according to Asagua calculations, from 2002 to 2021, items worth 10,606 million euros have been introduced. Of this amount, only 7,689 million were executed and 2,917 million were pending, 27% less.
In the item allocated to water quality, the figures managed by this association indicate that 4,105 million were budgeted but only 2,943 million euros were executed, that is, 1,162 million were left in the drawer again, 28% less.
The ASAGUA companies, dedicated to the construction of water infrastructure and its operation and maintenance, have warned that the deterioration of water infrastructure due to the investment deficit accumulated in the last fifteen years, reaches the urban water cycle. 35,000 million euros. A scenario that puts at risk the correct provision of supply, sanitation and purification services.
The investments in the General State Budgets explain that they are not sustained over time; They do not grow in the same proportion as inflation and fluctuate each year, giving rise to a sawtooth pattern. In addition, they are not binding and, therefore, are subject to change, a situation that in practice means spending less than budgeted.
In 2023, the degree of compliance with the budgets dedicated to water has been unsatisfactory despite the fact that Spain continues to face fines for not having all its waters well purified.
Bidding down
The scarcity of tenders and their irregular distribution have caused declines in tenders, hindering the fulfillment of contracts and the quality of service.
ASAGUA advocates the preparation of specifications that seek the offer with the best quality-price ratio with a view to preventing a mediocre technical offer from being awarded the award because it is associated with an economic proposal that is difficult to comply with. To do this, they explain that it is important that the specifications establish technical thresholds, eliminating the possibility that the economic valuation allows bad technical offers to be awarded.
One of the tools to avoid these situations, frequent in recent years, is the use of the presumption of recklessness of the offers, rejecting offers that incur it.
This insufficient public investment, in addition to the risks it poses for catastrophic situations like the current one, lead to the disappearance of companies and, with it, the loss of qualified jobs, reducing the capacity of a Spanish sector of the urban water cycle, a leader at an international level. which generates 27,000 direct jobs in our country, 35,000 indirect jobs and invoices more than 7.5 billion euros per year.
Poor and low priority infrastructure
Ipsos in its annual Global Infrastructure Index study, which analyzes, among other elements, the level of citizen satisfaction with infrastructure, determines that more than half of the population in Spain (55%) considers that The country’s flood protection infrastructure is poor.forming part of the ‘top three’ infrastructures that citizens give the worst rating after new housing (71%) and electric vehicle charging (62%). However, despite this perception and assessment, Spanish citizens do not consider improving these infrastructures an investment priority. In this case, only 27% of the population considers it a priority, while investing in solar energy infrastructure (40%), railways (37%) or water supply and sewage networks (36%) mark the main preferences of citizens at the national level.
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