El abastecimiento de agua a Cartagena

Abstract

Water shortage in the region of the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, where Cartagena and its surroundings belong, has forced to search and bring foreign water resources in order to meet the supply needs of Cartagena. Initially, due to the absence of permanent rivers, it was necessary to build wells and cisterns; small aqueducts from fountains and springs of limited capacity, and subfluvial extractions by underground drifts. Demands increase and it is planned to bring water from the top of the Segura Basin. Using the infrastructure of the Commonwealth of Taibilla Channel (MCT, created by Decree of October 4, 1927), water reaches Cartagena in 1945. In the last thirty five years, these waters have been joined by the flow of the Tajo-Segura transfer, and finally, water coming from desalination plants. Water supply’s management, throughout the history of Cartagena (since the founding of Carthago Nova in 229 BC to the early years of this century); has created a rich heritage of water infrastructure and an experienced culture of water uses. It is a regional and diachronic study, from the view of water as a scarce and limited resource, where the supply situation of Cartagena (city and neighborhoods) as claimant of equity and foreign water is exposed. Investment in distribution networks and in awareness of most of the users into a sustainable use, allow a continuous supply of water and regeneration of wastewater for other uses. In this geographical (spatial) and historical work (diachronic), the sources are interviews with the managers of the companies responsible for water distribution in high (large diameter pipes of MCT) and low (small diameter pipes of HIDROGEA), and the access to archival documentation of the City of Cartagena, Regional, Commonwealth Taibilla, and the Hydrographic Confederation of Segura (CHS) archives.