Myths, Fallacies, Paradoxes, Mistakes and Virtual Water in the Mediterranean Castillo López, José Manuel The statement that everything remains the same in Mediterranean Europe in matters of continental waters following the course of the last three decades is untrue. In effect, following the drought of 1995 or perhaps coinciding with it, social movements and a high proportion of scientists and even numerous members of the administrations themselves have been highly concerned about the question of continental waters. As a result of the many books, articles in scientific journals and conferences, etc., the so-called New Water Culture, demand management, water quality etc. today constitute expressions highly disseminated amongst academics and managers to such an extent that we either consider ourselves as fellow believers of these new tendencies in water policy or, at least, few dare to publically state their opposite to them. But, in reality, have the aforementioned changes and other developments substantially affected the principles that inspire current hydropolitics in Mediterranean Europe? Or, on the contrary, do “old ghosts” reappear whenever there are periods of less rainfall? In this article I shall analyse some aspects of the water situation in Mediterranean Europe and, above all, of the correlative management models that have been developed in recent decades.Highly used terms, expressions and concepts such as throwing water into the sea, hydraulic works are in the general interest, wet Europe and dry Europe, the water transfer will definitively solve the problem, water deficit, water must be distributed fairly, everyone has a right to water, water is a public asset etc. shall be reviewed from a scientific approach. The concept of water scarcity is normally assumed by people and the administrations that irrationally integrate it into public policy without questioning it at all. I differentiate and discuss the concepts of physical and economic scarcity, of the prices and effects these have on the efficiency and equity of water management and usage. We briefly analyse the problem of the pollution of continental water and that caused by the dumping thereof in the Mediterranean Sea. We make a number of general comments in regards to water transfers and provide a short overview of three of the most controversial of these works in Spain: The Ebro-Almería, Tajo-Segura and the Castril River Water Transfer. I present a new line of research for the management of water, the virtual water approach that produces and confirms the results I already previously obtained through conventional procedures. In the last section I describe the economic effects on agriculture and tourism that climate change is causing in a number of Mediterranean regions. I state in advance that my conclusion is The New Water Culture (NWC), from the South, demands the prior recognition that the biggest statements on the scarcity of water are not the result of climatic conditions, rather, they are due to the economic development and social model followed, misgovernment by competent institutions and, definitively, because the conflicts made evident between different users have solely been resolved with arguments of political and, ultimately, economic power. 2024-02-20T12:50:19Z 2024-02-20T12:50:19Z 2023 info:eu-repo/semantics/article https://hdl.handle.net/10481/89394 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess