Our paper gives a panoramic picture of the debates that have taken place in Spain about the distribution of water resources. The historic review starts with the colonial crisis and the emergence of reform projects at the end of the XIXth century and ends with the breakdown of the Second Republic in the XXth century. Our research shows the changes of policies undertaken by different governments a long this period and the kind of actors that got active in the debates about how to fight against the country's dryness and drough