Industrial heritage of water infrastructure in the Maltese Islands

Abstract

The Maltese Islands, situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea have in the past depended almost exclusively on rainfall for the provision of water. With an average annual rainfall of 553mm, dry and rainless summers, and very few natural springs, the inhabitants of these islands resorted to water harvesting and storage as well as pumping water from the aquifers, which are replenished by rainwater percolating through the islands’ porous limestone formation. This gave rise to rock-cut cisterns and reservoirs for storing water, galleries for collecting it, aqueducts and rock-cut channels, and pumping systems driven by beast, wind and diesel engine. Desalination of sea-water, now the main source of water, was also resorted to in the past, but of these distillation plants, only the buildings remain. The paper reviews the rich industrial heritage of the key structures and machinery which survive and in some cases are still in use, as well as the challenges in conservation, with reference to the assessment and restoration of key structures based on advanced engineering solutions.