Academic Researchers
David Saurí is a professor at the geography department of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He wrote several articles on desalination and the Barcelona case.
​
Two excerpts representative of the overall content of the discussion:
​
“Why did desalinization emerge as an irrefutable solution? to protect the delta!
The desalination plant debate is a political issue; it is not a top-down imposed solution much less. It was a technical alternative, but there was social consensus.”
“Desalination is necessary: ​​it is important for the economy and the citizens to have water.[...] Desalination is used as a last resort. It has problems but it is needed at the moment”
Joe Williams is a researcher in desalination and political ecology, he has co-written with Erik Swyngedouw an article named “From Spain’s hydro-deadlock to the desalination fix”
​
Excerpts from the interview:
“Desalination is a technology often used to circumvent water politics. A way of diffusing water politics without actually solving any problems which are in the heart of the matter."
​
"In the Spanish case, it was a way of reconciling the political tensions between North and the South. It is circumventing water politics. But it does not solve any political issues in water at the heart of Spain.”
Miguel Sanz works for Suez and is the President and Director of the International Desalination Association (IDA). He is most obviously pro-desalination, defending that this method has no environmental impacts and is easily mitigated.
​
He is the co-author of "The role of SWRO Barcelona-Llobregat Plant in the water supply system of Barcelona Area" (20) of which here is an excerpt:
​
“The Llobregat Desalination Plant [...] has become the key element to ensure the water supply in the area of Barcelona in the most severe droughts and its design has been made to work in the most unfavourable conditions. [...] Barcelona-Llobregat Desalination Plant has fulfilled the expected objectives of operation and quality of treated water since the inauguration in July 2009, despite the reduced regime of operation due to the high level of the dams in this period. The desalination facilities have also been very respectful with the environment and have also reduced the carbon footprint with renewable energies.”
Sara Fernandez is a researcher at Irstea and wrote several papers on water governance in the Mediterranean.
​
Excerpts from the interview:
“Water is much more politicised in Spain than it is, for instance, in France”
​
“Why would they want such an infrastructure (desalination). It will cause problems as it is costly”
Erik Swyngedouw is a professor of geography at the University of Manchester in the School of Environment, Education and Development and a member of the Manchester Urban Institute.
His studies concern political economic analysis and political-ecological themes, notably water issues, in Ecuador, Spain, and the UK. He indeed wrote on desalination in Spain.
​
During the interview with Erik Swyngedouw, he had a strong opinion on desalination in general. To him desalination in Barcelona is a “techno-managerial and social ‘fix’ conceived to depoliticize the issue”. His papers “From Spain’s hydro-deadlock to the desalination fix” (3) and “Into the sea: Desalination as a hydro-social fix” (12) are examples of his opinion and contribution to the academic debate.
Hug March is an associate professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, and research at the Laboratory of Urban Transformation and Global Change (TURBA Lab). He is somehow a nuanced voice and more critical of desalination than David Sauri or Miguel Sanz.
​
“The collapse of the real estate sector since 2008, combined with the decline in water use by various sectors, has shown that the demand for desalinated water was overestimated. Moreover, desalination was given so much prominence because it was thought that it could provide water at a lower cost than other large-scale alternatives. However, the considerable increase in electricity prices did not allow desalination to position itself as an interesting source of water” (2)
The Association of Spanish Geographers is a professional partnership of geographers that have published a bulletin saying that in the last two decades, public administrations have committed more than 81,000 million euros in "unnecessary, abandoned, underused or poorly programmed infrastructures" (XXXIII)
​
There are four forms of squandering identified in the article : corruption, underused works, useless projects and inadequate prioritization of investments. According to them “Desalination plants deserve a separate chapter, with cost overruns, inefficiencies or fraudulent management amounting to 2,339 million euros”.
