The River Basin Authorities Celebrate Their Centenary at SMAGUA 2025.

On March 5, 2025, the hydrographic confederations participated in SMAGUA 2025 (Zaragoza), as part of the commemoration of their centenary. The institutional conference, entitled “Contribution of the Hydrographic Confederations to social progress in Spain from the basin unit“, brought together representatives of all the confederations, as well as state entities such as Acuaes, Acuamed and the Mancomunidad de los Canales del Taibilla.

The Director General of Water of the MITECO, María Dolores Pascual, and the President of the Confederación Hidrográfica del Ebro, Carlos Arrazola, attended the meeting, who emphasized that “it is inherent and is in the DNA of the confederations, the fact that they were born linked to the promotion of a very powerful agricultural development”.

During his speech, Arrazola recalled that in 1926 there were only 400,000 hectares of irrigated land with precarious endowments in the del Ebro basin, compared to more than 800,000 hectares today, of which 60% are modernized. He also pointed out that the volume of water stored in reservoirs has increased from 400 hm³ in 1926 to 7900 hm³ at present, with a forecast of 8800 hm³ according to the new Ebro Hydrological Plan.

The conference highlighted the regulatory evolution of the confederations from their creation in 1926, through the 1985 Water Law and its reform in 2001, to the adaptation to the Water Framework Directive and the current water management plans.

This news was originally published in March 2025. It is recovered on this website as part of the chronology of the centenary of the Confederación Hidrográfica del Ebro (1926-2026).