Water management (ACCIONA)

Water management is no longer only an environmental issue, but a strategic priority for growth, competitiveness, and resilience.

In a context of water stress, climate volatility & rising demand, securing water requires far more than preservation alone. It demands adaptive infrastructure, reuse, new supply sources, focus on innovation, stronger public-private cooperation and long-term vision.

In countries such as Spain, exposed to water stress and in a context where agriculture accounts for around 80% of water demand, efficient water use is a strategic necessity. This is evident in the increasingly frequent episodes of scarcity across large parts of the country.

But the water challenge is not only about scarcity, but also about preparing for more volatile rainfall patterns, where prolonged droughts coexist with more intense weather events.

We have seen this in Spain recently. Although reservoirs may recover quickly, temporary abundance does not solve the underlying problem. Instead, it reinforces the need for infrastructure that, while securing supply, strengthens resilience to increasingly extreme climate events.

Meeting this challenge requires action, including modernizing water networks, scaling up reuse, developing new supply sources (primarily desalination) and investing in infrastructure that supports long-term adaptation. Progress also depends on regulatory frameworks that encourage efficiency (particularly in agriculture) more agile and coordinated governance, and partnership models mobilizing investment and technical expertise across the affected sectors.