¿Cómo convivir con la escasez del agua?: El caso de las islas Canarias

Abstract

Water scarcity does not necessarily means poverty, as can be deduced from the study of geographical areas. There are countries that are relatively rich with scarce water resources and poor countries that have plenty of freshwater. A developed human society has scientific, technical, economic, institutional and policy resources to adapt water availability to demand, and vice versa, in a way that tends to sustainability. This needs modifying conveniently economic activities and making sustainability a wanted and participated social goal. The Archipelago of the Canaries is placed in the Saharan dry belt, although there are some areas of relatively high rainfall in the north-facing slopes of the islands, which intersect the circulation of trade winds and atlantic humid air masses. Water scarcity is something well assumed and internalised in many of the areas of the Canaries, especially after the demographic explosion of the XX century. But this does not imply poverty; actually it is an European region with acceptable economic level and notably rich respect the nearby geographical area. Freshwater wining is the accumulated result of secular economic and imaginative efforts, which present differences from island to island and even inside the same island. However some serious malfunctions remain or have appeared due to the fast evolution, persistence of unsustainable agricultural activities and still scarce public participation in long-term water policies. This happens in a scientific and technical environment which is still to be consolidated. However there are spectacular achievements in groundwater wining, and there are notorious progress in desalination and water reuse.