It could have been oh so different

The plan was to redirect water from the Ebro Valley which would have reduced the risk of flooding there and provided a plentiful supply of water to this region.

However, the idea was not popular with the people living in the Ebro Valley so in a bid to gain votes the Socialist party promised to drop the scheme. Instead they built the desalination plant at Torrevieja. As it happens Torrevieja already had one of the best water management systems on the coast . In any case, the water from the new plant is destined for Murcia, Alicante and inland to Orihuela and so is of no benefit to the town.

Thanks to the short sightedness of the people of the Ebro Valley, it still floods each year and the farmers in this region still have to take whatever water they can get for their crops. A new study suggests that the project to divert water from the Ebro would, not only have solved both these problems but would have created 514,135 jobs directly and indirectly in Valencia, Murcia, Catalonia an Almeria province.