Competition for water use in the province of Alicante (Spain): management experiences for harmonizing tourist and agricultural uses

Water availability in quantity and quality is a decisive factor to attend the urban, tourist and agricultural demands in areas with natural scarcity of resources. In the province of Alicante in order to ensure these demands, it has been resorted to hydraulic traditional solutions such as transfers and aquifers exploitation and new ones as growing use of non-conventional sources, increasing the efficiency of water use and others based on the
harmonization of different uses. In this paper, it is analyzed the most important models developed in Alicante for harmonizing tourist and agricultural water uses: the collective management of overexploited aquifers (Junta Central de Usuarios del Vinalopó) and the agreements signed between urban areas and farmers based on the exchange of wastewater and clean water for its use in irrigation and tourism activities, respectively (Consorcio de Aguas de la Marina Baja). It is highlighted the growing importance of sewage regenerated for harmonizing tourist and agricultural water uses.