Hidden Depths: The Wicked Problem of Groundwater Management in a Spanish Aquifer, 1964–1990

Abstract

International transfers of expertise and technology in the postwar era provided access to previously untapped aquifers around the world. Large-scale groundwater use transformed environments and economies but created new stakeholder conflicts and problems of long-term stability. In one such case, between 1964 and 1990 heavy extraction from the Almonte-Marismas aquifer system in the arid province of Huelva, Spain, created rapid economic growth that threatened valuable groundwater-dependent ecosystems. Citing uncertainty about the volume of the aquifer, its rate of recharge from the surface, and the likelihood of harm to the local environment, conservationists advocated a precautionary approach to groundwater use, while productivist state agents and private investors manipulated and concealed data in order to justify continued exploitation. This case study underscores the essential role of the state in the development of a resource that has been widely described as “democratic” or “self-service” and describes the myriad ways in which state and private actors generate, deploy, and conceal knowledge about groundwater to advance political and economic agendas. Hidden deep underground in strata of sand and gravel, groundwater’s invisibility renders it particularly susceptible to politically motivated claims of scientific uncertainty. Groundwater management is a “wicked problem,” virtually insoluble due to its complexity, the extent of scientific uncertainty in any given aquifer, stakeholders’ incompatible objectives and worldviews, and the serious and irreversible consequences of policies or actions. Historical examples such as that of Almonte-Marismas can play a pivotal role in understanding the origins of and solutions to contemporary conflicts over this increasingly scarce resource.