When the rainsbegan to fall again in 1996, municipalities scrambled to secure their quotasand set water restrictions on residents. But in the northern city of Zaragoza,one group took a very different approach.

Water had alwaysbeen managed in a reactive way in Spain, said Víctor Viñuales, co-founder anddirector of the Spanish NGO Fundación Ecología y Desarrollo(Ecology andDevelopment Foundation). His approach was, as he put it: “We need water, wherewill we find it?” It was an approach that had pushed Spain into a counter-intuitiveposition of having one of the world's highest per capita water consumptionrates despite limited access to freshwater. “There simply weren't any policiesin place to manage the demand.”

The next phase of the project relied on a network of what Viñuales called 50 volunteer“accomplices”. Free audits were offered to help implement water-saving – and ultimately cost-saving – measures to a diverse group that included a hospital, a fish vendor and a swimming pool. As soon as positive results came rolling in, Viñuales's group would spread the word to similar business, handing out guidebooks that explained which techniques were used. He pointed to alocal hairdressing salon, where the audit resulted in water savings of 90%.“

Immediately we spread the news about these good practices to the other 1000 hairdressing salons in the city.” With the leaders marking the path, the majority soon followed, he said, prompted along by an ongoing large-scale awareness raising campaign.Behind the scenes, his group worked with the municipality to offer discounts on water-saving products as well as to residents who managed to reduce their water consumption.

The city's water bills were redesigned so that residents could see how much water they had used that month in comparison to previous months. Viñuales's group also worked with retailers to ensure that water-saving options – for products ranging from toilets to taps – were widely available to citizens.“What we did was articulate the project, then use social and economic actors to weave the project into the lives of citizens. 

The project really belonged to everyone,” said Viñuales. He and his team are now working with officials acrossSpain to implement similar programs in various cities and regions.In Zaragoza, the focus has shifted to innovation in water management, through a research cluster that uses the city as a “living lab,” said Marisa Fernández who leads the Zinnae cluster.

A public park in the city that sits on a steep slope, for example, has become the site of several experiments to tackle erosion. “A plant company from Zaragoza has put ascertain type of plant there and a company from Madrid developed a watering system for it. Both are testing to see if they can avoid erosion without wasting water.”The city's aquifer is also getting a makeover, as the cluster, the University of Zaragoza and various companies work together to develop a “smart” system to manage its use.“When we began, we inherited years of raising awareness amongst residents, companies and the city,” said Fernández. “There was a trajectory of collaboration of many years.”

As the Spanish economy fights off a double-digit recession and rampant unemployment, environmental issues have been pushed to the back burner, she said.“Municipalities in Spain have limited their spending on infrastructure. They're not looking for innovation, but rather just maintenance.” The cluster has responded by increasingly tying their work to cost-saving benefits as well asseting their sights beyond the Spanish border, targeting markets across Europe and in central and south America.

Spain's crippling economic crisis served to underscore a virtue that's been key to the project, said Viñuales: Patience. “We're talking about a process of 15 years. To achieve profound change – whether it be environmental, social or cultural – you have to be prepared to take it on for the long haul.“Here in Zaragoza we've had that profound change. The population grew, but we use fewer resources than before.” He paused before he adding, “It's really what needs to be achieved on a global level.”