La protección del agua y de sus ecosistemas en la Directiva Marco del Aguauna valoración crítica desde España

Abstract

This report presents a summary of the evolution of water regulations in the European Union, conditioned by the initially limited legal basis and its sectorial approach (quality objectives depending on the predefined uses of water).The first generation of Directives evidenced the limitations of this sectorial approach and the limited results achieved, giving way to a second generation of Directives that address either specific pollution problems (urban and industrial wastewater, diffuse pollution by nitrates), or initiate a combined approach for the pollution control (integrated pollution control of large industrial facilities), that have contributed to the improvement of water quality in Europe. The paradigm shift takes place with the ambitious Water Framework Directive, which adopts as an environmental objective the good state of water and its dependent ecosystems. It introduces as a novelty the concept of ecological status of water, which exceeds the traditional approach limited to avoiding chemical pollution. Regardless of the instrumental elements that the Directive establishes to achieve these goals (watershed management, management plans, programme of measures, combined control of pollution, cost recovery principle, public participation), it obliges the Member States to establish enormous information systems and programs to monitor quality, in need of periodic feedback, which generates a huge bureaucracy. The nature of these systems, the complexity of their procedures and their disproportionate cost, can, paradoxically, make it impossible to achieve the ambitious environmental goals of the Directive. The ambitious and unique nature of this Directive should not be taken as a model for its transfer to other countries (as in the case of Peru), where scarce public resources should be applied to solve, effectively, concrete problems of pollution (the experience with urban wastewater and nitrates, can be considered as a reference).