ABSTRACT
Water resources have been an important issue in Spain since ancient times. An example is the Contrebia Belaisca bronze from 89BC, which documents the fight between the Iberic town of Salduie (Saragossa) and the Vasconian town of Alaun for the water supply to Salduie (Fatás and Beltrán, 1997); other examples are the dams of Almonacid de la Cuba, Proserpina and Cornalvo, which were the highest built in the whole Roman Empire (Arenillas, 2002). Substantial irrigation projects were undertaken in the Middle Ages under Islamic rule, and the water court of Valencia (Tribunal de las Aguas) is an institution that has been settling water disputes for the past 1000 years.
