Industrial water heritage in the Maltese Islands : a conservation strategy

Abstract

Consciousness towards Industrial Heritage in the Maltese Islands is a relatively new concept. Like many other European countries, Malta has undergone drastic changes after the Second World War. From a mostly manufacturing dependent economy, there was a shift to a more financial and tourism dependency. This shift, together with huge advances in technology, has left the Maltese culture with many structures that served their purpose in the past and now are out of use. The Maltese water industry Is no exception. Being a semi-arid island, Malta has since the times of the Knights, possibly even before, suffered from a lack of supply and provision of potable water, and hence various systems have been adopted aiming to solve this vital problem. Through the centuries, generations were creative and came up with several ways to store and distribute water. Later, the extraction of underground water was also exploited. Innovative technologies subsequently permitted the production of potable water from seawater by distillation and later by desalination.