The silent conquest of a riverbed. In a plain where once water sprang from the depths of the Mancha, a decades-long legal dispute nears resolution as Spain’s Confederación Hidrográfica del Guadiana approaches the final stage in reclaiming the Ojos del Guadiana, the traditional source of one of the peninsula’s major rivers. Once a marshy cradle of biodiversity, this public hydraulic domain was overtaken by agrarian appropriation, where now stands a pivot irrigation system watering alfalfa beneath a sign asserting private ownership by the SAT Evangelista. The symbolism of that sign and the absence of water conceal a broader struggle: who truly owns a dry riverbed and whether the law can resurrect what the climate and policy have drained. Legal milestones like the 1994 Supreme Court ruling, which confirmed the public status of the riverbed regardless of water presence, clashed with property records and the inertia of institutional neglect. In 2016, delimitation mojones—cement markers—reaffirmed the State’s claim, igniting new litigation with SAT Evangelista. Yet the 2025 provincial court ruling upheld the State’s rights, rendering land titles invalid when set against Dominio Público Hidráulico. Still, this paper victory contrasts with environmental defeat: piezometric levels continue to fall, and the once-revived aquifer, which briefly surged in 2012, remains critically depleted. Miguel Mejías of IGME-CSIC quantifies the decline: an 18.27-metre drop since 1980, mirroring the vanishing hopes for spontaneous hydrological recovery. While legal ownership may soon be restored, the real eye of the Guadiana remains shut—buried beneath metres of dust, bureaucracy, and irrigation lines.
