ABSTRACT
Water resources are a major environmental issue in the Mediterranean, because economic growth is coupled to irrigation agriculture. However, it is incorrect to assume that the driest areas have the greatest water shortages. Water shortages are made worse by strong contrasts in the spatial excesses and deficits and poor management of the existing resources. Typically, 40 per cent of the water leaving a reservoir and intended for a plant will actually reach the plant roots. Farmers do not comply with existing legislation and water is conceived of, and treated as, a free commodity. Even where tariffs (charges for water) are applied, they are usually far less than the real cost of water. For all these reasons, water resources are not a technical supply-side question, but rather a behavioural demand-side question. Without doubt, water management is a problem of environmental management.
