The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment joins the celebration of World Water Day with various activities and proposals

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment has joined, once again, the commemorative events of World Water Day, which is celebrated on Sunday around the world, and which this year the United Nations has dedicated to the link between water and sustainable development.
 
This conference will be aimed at encouraging reflection on how water is essential to guarantee the social, economic and environmental development of society, as well as on the need to move from a sectoral approach to water to a multidisciplinary approach, which captures the interconnections that exist between water, food, energy, etc. health, trade or the environment.
 
Water is a vital resource for human beings and there is still much to be done, despite advances such as the fact that, in the last 25 years, 2,000 million people have been able to access an improved source of drinking water and more than a hundred countries have achieved the Millennium Development Goal target on water.
 
For this reason, this year will mark a before and after in global water management, not in vain in 2015 the deadlines set within the framework of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) end and the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will have to be defined.
 
These objectives, in terms of water and sanitation, must be defined from a human rights-based approach and on the basis of basin hydrological planning, public participation, legal certainty, integrated resource management and physical and technological hydraulic infrastructures.
 
COMMITMENT OF SPAIN
Spain, as an actor on the international scene, is committed to promoting this vision and bringing it to the international debate on the sustainable development agenda.
 
This vision of the SDG on water is the one that the Ministry is going to defend at the World Water Forum in Korea, at the Conference of Ibero-American Water Directors (CODIA), or the one that will lead to the 5+5 Strategy for the Western Mediterranean promoted by Spain and Algeria and which will be adopted at ministerial level on 31 March in Algiers.
 
In this regard, it is essential that the future post-2015 development agenda goes beyond sectoral compartmentalization and promotes a welfare model compatible with the limited resources available to us.
 
In addition, it is important to underline that access to water and sanitation are human rights, with all the implications that this entails in terms of mandatory and legal enforceability.
 
MINISTRY ACTIVITIES
The Ministry, in addition, in order to bring the World Day closer to citizens, has held different events throughout this week to publicize, first-hand, the work carried out by the Administration in the field of water.
 
Thus, the Secretary of State for the Environment and its autonomous bodies (Hydrographic Confederations, State Water Companies, Biodiversity Foundation…) have organized environmental workshops, school activities, visits and open days, competitions, etc. in different parts of the country.
 
Thus, the Miño-Sil Hydrographic Confederation has emphasised the importance of schoolchildren taking care of the riverbeds and has organised several “Water Workshops”, in which more than 200 boys and girls have attended educational talks and field trips to carry out sampling and characterisation work in rivers such as the Louro.
 
In addition, visits have been made to the station of the Automatic Hydrological Information System (SAIH) located in this channel from where the Hydrographic Confederation controls its management, and they have also called a drawing and photography contest for schoolchildren in the basin to show how they see their rivers and environments.
 
The Duero Hydrographic Confederation commemorates World Water Day by getting closer to children, so within the framework of its environmental education program for schoolchildren (“EducaDuero”) it has organized a training day with children from the Burgos schools of Santa María del Campo and Pampliega on the banks of the Arlanzón River, in collaboration with the National Association for the Defense of Water Quality (Adecagua).
 
Thus, the children have measured in this river parameters indicative of the quality of the water such as temperature, dissolved oxygen, nitrates or PH. They have also been able to learn about biological indicators such as aquatic macroinvertebrates, examine the state of riverside vegetation and check the pressures to which rivers are subjected by human activities.
 
With all this information they have made a diagnosis of the state of the Arlanzón as it passes through Pampliega, becoming authentic “river detectives” and putting into practice concepts learned in their Natural Sciences classes.
 
The Ebro Hydrographic Confederation, for its part, has organised the commemoration of this event with photography as the protagonist.
 
Thus, it has organized a photographic exhibition, until the 27th at the headquarters of the CHE (free admission), with the title “Pura Agua”, the work of the Zaragoza photographer Susana Tolosana, who in 40 snapshots portrays the beauty of water and its creative capacity.
 
In addition, the CHE has convened a digital photography contest, called “Water in Essence”, from which the next cover of the Activity Report of this Hydrographic Confederation will appear. The deadline for receipt of originals will be extended from Sunday until April 22. All the rules of the contest can be consulted on its website (www.chebro.es).
 
The state-owned company Aguas de las Cuencas Mediterráneas (Acuamed), meanwhile, has organized two activities on the occasion of World Water Day. On the one hand, in Tarragona, it has celebrated the inauguration and opening to the public of two new wetlands located in the Ebro Delta: Embut (in Amposta) and Illa de Mar (in Deltebre). Meanwhile, in Lorca (Murcia), it has organized a visit for schoolchildren to three artificial wetlands.
 
The two new wetlands in the Ebro Delta are located in areas of high ecological value, with the presence of varied flora and abundant fauna, which visitors, from now on, will be able to observe along the established routes, in which explanatory panels have been placed. 
 
Meanwhile, in Lorca (Murcia), and together with the Association for Land Stewardship and Sustainable Development (ACUDE), Acuamed has organized a visit with more than 60 students from Puerto Lumbreras, who have toured the three artificial wetlands whose restoration has been financed by Acuamed on the Las Cumbres de la Galera estate. A large number of species (amphibians, reptiles and insects) depend on these wetlands (ponds or watering holes), so they will help the conservation of local wildlife.
 
Most of the projects carried out by Acuamed in the provinces of Murcia and Almeria are associated with environmental integration measures related to the protection of the Moorish tortoise (Testudo graeca), an endangered species. The Ministry thus collaborates with wildlife conservation projects related to the water environment, also strengthening the relationship with the territories where it operates and with its population, demonstrating interest in them and their environmental values.
 
For its part, the state-owned company Aguas de las Cuencas de España (Acuaes) has participated in the celebration of World Water Day in Aragon, with an event, today, at the City Council of Villanueva de Gállego, within the framework of the works to guarantee the quality supply to this town that are part of the measures contemplated in the Comprehensive Plan for the decontamination of the Gállego River. to which the Ministry will allocate a total of about 12 million euros.
 
In addition, the state company participates, also today, in the visit of schoolchildren to the Drinking Water Treatment Plant (DWTP) of Badajoz.
 
Meanwhile, the Mancomunidad de los Canales del Taibilla has organized the visit of three institutes, with 150 schoolchildren in total, to the water treatment plants of Sierra de la Espada, Letur, the Taibilla reservoir dam and the San Pedro desalination plant. 
 
The students, within the framework of these visits on the occasion of World Water Day, have prepared work related to water to raise awareness of the proper use of this resource, its origin and management systems. 
 
The Biodiversity Foundation, for its part, supports with 1.2 million euros the development of 75 projects dedicated to habitat restoration, species monitoring, training and awareness on sustainable water management and the development of studies on the economic valuation of water resources. Up to 50 of these projects have had the significant involvement of volunteers.
 
The Biodiversity Foundation is also executing the LIFE+ Desmania project as its most outstanding project, with a total amount of almost 2.6 million euros, for the conservation of the “Iberian desman”, which involves the collaboration of eight national and regional entities, from Extremadura and Castilla y León, and the Duero, Tagus and Miño-Sil Hydrographic Confederations.
 
The Iberian desman is a small semi-aquatic insectivorous mammal that is distributed throughout the northern half of the Iberian Peninsula. Its populations have experienced a significant decline and, in some Autonomous Communities, it is in danger of extinction. The main threats have to do with causes that lead to the degradation and fragmentation of their habitat, and are mainly of anthropic origin, such as water pollution, among others.