ABSTRACT
In this chapter we will examine the current situation of water supply and sanitation services in Spain, with a special emphasis on the Mediterranean coast where the debate on water is more acute and where privatization processes are rapidly expanding in a context also of rapid urban and tourist development. As stated in the Introduction to this volume, the privatization of water supply and sanitation may affect universal rights of access to these services and introduce elements of inequity along income, gender, ethnic or market positional divides. In particular, the provision of water in sufficient quantity and quality and the safe disposal of wastewater constitute a human and social right as stated in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UN, 2000,2002), as well as in the European Declaration for a New Water Culture signed in 2005 (EUWATER, 2005).
