Watch: 'Restore the Gozo aqueduct' - Luke Said
PN candidate appeals to Gozo Ministry to start promised restoration of historical monument
A Nationalist Party candidate has highlighted the plight of the historic aqueduct in Gozo as it awaits much promised restoration.
In a video on social media, Luke Said pointed out how in 2022 the Ministry for Gozo had promised that the aqueduct would be fully restored in 2025. The project was expected to cost €2 million and was scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.
However, till now, the monument, which has just been scheduled by the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage, has only received a single support beam wedged beneath one arch.
“The stonework continues to crumble,” Said pointed out.
Built by the British between 1839 and 1842 to transport water from Għar Ilma in the limits of Kerċem to Victoria, the aqueduct fell into disrepair after it was replaced by a system of pipes and electrical pumps.
Large sections of the structure have been lost over time. In 2019 the ministry had planned to reconstruct the aqueduct but the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage objected saying the “surviving monument has architectural, historical and aesthetic value as a historical ruin” and there was no justification for the proposed extension and construction of new tracts.
Said argued that the structure, which once symbolised the “ingenuity of a bygone era, today it symbolises something else entirely – the institutional neglect of Gozo’s heritage”.
He accused the ministry of lacking the political will to act decisively “before another piece of Gozo’s history collapses”.
“The people of Gozo are not asking for miracles. We’re asking for maintenance,” he added.