SBE Malta has been invited to manage and coordinate the Maltese Contribution in the HYDRIA Project, in collaboration with Nature Trust Malta. SBE Malta is collaborating with various organisations across the Mediterranean.
HYDRIA Project
The HYDRIA project uses water as a ‘vehicle’ to unfold the diverse, yet common, tangible and intangible Mediterranean cultural heritage, through reviving some representative ancient water management visions, concepts and techniques of the distant and more recent past. The project aims to shed light on cases demonstrating the wisdom of our ancestors, which evolved hand-in-hand with the environment, or, on the other hand, to cases showing the catastrophic implications when civilisations did not respect and adapt to water availability and geo-climatic peculiarities.
Moreover, the project aims to demonstrate that this past wisdom in the area of water collection, storage and transfer can be properly combined with modern technological innovations to help address today’s needs in harmony with the environment. Adapting peoples’ consuming behaviour and management patterns to more sustainable ones is an indirect long-term goal of the project.
The Maltese Case Study: The Late Medieval Water Galleries In Malta (11th to 16th century)
The Late Medieval Water Galleries in Malta (11th to 16th Century) are of archaeological significance and relevance, consisting of narrow rock-cut tunnels tapping the perched aquifer.
This project addresses the exploitation of the perched aquifer before the late-19th-century discovery of an alternative water source which led to a dramatic shift in water management and production policies on the island.