Since the solutions convenient in the medium-long term (that is, the ones that watch out for the interest of coming generations and the environment) tend to be much less friendly than the ones that have been traditionally used, the important of learning the causes preventing a certain strategy from being adopted is obvious. Only with knowledge can one replace the decisions belonging to the past with ones which matter for the future.

Since water is a natural resource of vital importance for society, decisions must combine the economic, social and environmental areas, the three angles of sustainability. Seeking the solution to water problems from a purely technocratic angle is - apart from being inconvenient - simply unreal. Realising this fact, much more important in countries where there is a shortage of water such as Spain, lies at the origin of ITA’s interest for water policy. Fifteen years after there started to be awareness of the water policy, with all its many implications, this has only got greater. The works and press articles vouch for this .