The Ebro River
A cultural symbol
The Ebro River was a very tense point of the discussion. In fact, the controversy was really shaped as a dichotomy between desalination and the transfer of the Ebro River. Why did the Ebro river create such a wave of protection ? How could the river be protected at all costs in an almost consensual way in the Catalan region ?
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There was a big interest for this question in the civil society, this is particularly visible in the 2016 Platform in Defense of the Ebro. The Ebro river and transfers carried a very symbolic meaning. First Ebro is a very naturally rich river which finishes in the ocean in a very picturesque Delta which is also a Natural park with many unique and protected species : it is therefore a catalan heritage site. Its landscapes and their beauty were described since Renaissance in catalan geography and all through XX century when geography became more accessible this contributed to “the process of social creation of the identity landscapes of Catalonia, based on the history of Catalan geography focused on the landscapes” (26). This landscapes were also present in Literature (23) building in the collective imaginary.
On a more historical side, the Ebro is also a main character in the Spanish civil war, knowing that the Battle of the Ebro was the longest and largest battle of the Spanish Civil War, the Ebro separating franquists troops from Catalan Republican troops (Catalonia had declared its autonomy, still contested, few years before the starting of the Spanish Civil war). River transfers were also a Franquist centralist policy so it was difficult for such a policy to be accepted in a 2016 Catalan society that was getting more and more involved in independance issues (such as the referendum). There was therefore a second dichotomy appearing implicitly, one opposing the Central state (reminiscing of Franquism) in favor of river transfers to the catalan regional authorities that could not see their lands and rivers be appropriated and destroyed by a central state (25).
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For all these reasons the Ebro River has appeared as an ecological and cultural site that represents catalan specificity and identity. That is also where the consensus on desalination could appear : there is a convergence of environmentalists and socialists (in which there are many independentists influences) in protecting the Ebro River. It is therefore a very protected river as it seems to be part and parcel of the catalan identity.
Ebro River at Miranda de Ebro, Spain. Credit: Juanjo Toreador
Nuestra Señora del Pilar Cathedral on the Ebro River in Zaragoza, Spain.
A glance to the Ebro's delta unique ecosystem