About levadas

The history of the levadas is as old as Madeira’s history since settlement in the 15th century, and it is closely tied to economic development. Agriculture was the basis of the economy and the foundation of social cohesion. But the land was not ideal for that purpose: the interior was rugged and inaccessible, the north windy and wet. Sugar-cane plantations and vineyards therefore had to be established where the soil was fertile, where temperature and sunshine were favourable, where they were sheltered from the wind, and where cultivation was possible in winter too. That was on the south coast. Clearance and slash-and-burn created arable and pasture land. On the other side, the springs rose and the rivers and streams took their source in the higher regions and in the mountains. Moreover, the watercourses ran in deep ravines rather than across the cultivable land. So the idea soon arose of capturing water at a certain height and carrying it over longer distances in channels. The first levadas were limited in length and served for local diversion of water. Vertical levadas were also built, especially around Funchal, running down the mountainsides in the line of fall. Planning for levadas that would carry water from the wetter north to the south dates from after 1800. The first water to the south flowed in 1855 through the Furado Velho (Tunel das Estrebarias) via the Levada Velha do Rabacal (Levada do Risco). In 1877 the Reitertunnel (Furado Novo do Rabacal) was opened. In 1905 water from above Faja da Nogueira reached the Funchal area via the Levada do Furado and the Levada da Serra do Faial.

Construction and maintenance

According to chronicles from the early settlement period, the first channels were relatively short and built of wooden beams. The first levada mentioned in the chronicles is the Levada de Santa Luzia (1515). Later, as water demand rose sharply with sugar-cane and wine growing, construction technique improved and the levada network expanded. They were built on terraces in solid construction (channels lined with stone slabs). Today’s levadas are built of concrete, and the older ones are also repaired with concrete. The first tunnels were cut from the rock by hand with picks; later explosives were used. The dimensions of the levada bed grew from less than a metre wide and 50–60 cm deep to 120 cm wide and a metre deep. The free water surface must not be too large because of evaporation. The gradient is remarkably constant and precise even on older levadas (1 m per 1 km), to minimise height loss and allow a continuous slow flow. A path always runs beside the levadas for maintenance — sometimes wide, sometimes very narrow and exposed, sometimes secured with railings or lined with trees or scrub. For centuries levadas were cut into the rock by hand with simple tools. Moorish knowledge of water-channel building helped the Madeirans; slaves are also said to have been used in the dangerous areas. The same is reported of the Suonen in Valais (Switzerland), where convicted criminals were forced to work — officially “volunteers” who could reduce their sentence. Workers were lowered in baskets hung from rocks or trees onto the exposed cliff faces to cut the alignment of future levadas into the rock. Death was a constant companion; how many workers lost their lives is not recorded. But looking today at levadas such as the Levada do Norte in the Ribeira Brava valley or the Levada do Curral e Castelejo, the building of these works must have cost countless lives. Today it is easier thanks to technical progress, but extending and repairing levadas is still hard work: cement bags still have to be balanced by hand past precipices.

Here are some impressions of the challenges workers faced when building the levadas:

• naturemeetings
• ilhas.org

Ownership

The first levadas were commissioned by private large landowners. Water was distributed at their discretion, and any surplus was sold to farmers and settlers on extortionate terms, making them victims of speculation. In response the farmers formed cooperatives. These so-called Heréus were co-owners of the water carried in the jointly commissioned levadas. They took part in maintenance and elected a committee to administer water rights. This principle took hold; a document records a royal decree from the 16th century forbidding the obstruction of a watercourse on one’s own land for exclusive private use. Publicly funded levada construction began in the first half of the 19th century. One of the first was the Levada Velha do Rabacal, built from 1835 to 1860. Somewhat later the Levada do Furado was built; at the beginning of the 20th century the Levada da Serra do Faial entered service. Although the Heréus principle had proved itself, around 1900 more and more privately financed levadas were built that, as at the beginning, exploited a water monopoly on their own land. This led to social tension, and the state decided to nationalise levada construction.

The heyday of levada building

In 1943 the Comissão Administrativa dos Aproveitamentos Hidráulicos da Madeira was founded. By then there were about 200 levadas with a total length of 1,000 km. Madeira has a total area of 737 km², of which 300 km² is cultivable. In 1947 only 110 km² of that was in use. Thirty years later the whole cultivable area was in use and the levada system had been extended to 1,400 km. Those thirty years mark a milestone in levada history: 400 km of new levadas, 210 km² of additional farmland, and the building of four hydroelectric plants (in 1953 Serra de Agua and Calheta, in 1965 Ribeira da Janela, and in 1971 Faja da Nogueira, all fed by levadas) — an impressive record. Equally impressive are the builders’ technical achievements: 100 km were built above 1,000 m, which is very demanding because every alignment runs in steep terrain, and 20 km of tunnels were driven. Water is used twice: after passing the power plants it is in most cases used for drinking water and irrigation. Private levada owners were expropriated, not always smoothly. But the success of state intervention is impressive and was probably the key to a fairer distribution of this precious resource. Even so, managing water was not free of unrest and drama. The last tragedy played out in 1963, when the Heréus of the Levada do Moinho claimed that the heréus of the higher Levada Nova were taking too much water from the Ribeira da Ponta do Sol. They could only irrigate at night, and at a higher price than before. For four months the Heréus guarded the madres of both levadas. The conflict ended only when a resident of Lombada was killed by a police bullet. Even today the distribution of water remains a talking point between farmers and levadeiros, as the documentary film shows.

New challenges

The process continued and continues: rising living standards and growing urban populations increased drinking-water demand. Public drinking-water supply competed with agriculture’s interests; redistribution became more of a problem. Between 1970 and 1990 the regional government made many efforts to increase or expand water supply. In most cases these were solutions to regional problems without an overall plan. In 1990 the IGA (Instituto de Gastao da Agua — water-management institute) was therefore founded, to secure the population’s water supply while taking irrigation and hydropower into account. The island’s drinking-water supply was redesigned. The main tasks were to open new drinking-water sources, improve inflows, build treatment to modern standards, and introduce water-quality control. Some levadas remain an important foundation; added to them are water galleries (tunnels reaching 2–3 km into the mountain and tapping groundwater lakes), newly captured springs, and secured wells. All these sources are linked regionally and distributed by pipe systems and open levadas. Treatment plants, chlorination, and pumps are interposed, and huge storage basins and countless reservoirs hold the water. In 1995 the Socorridos power plant was built; in 2006 it was converted into the modern pumped-storage Socorridos Multipurpose System. A large wind farm was built on the Paul da Serra. On Porto Santo, green algae are used to produce CO₂-neutral bio-crude.

Future plans

A Calheta III pumped-storage plant is planned to store daytime surplus production, especially from the wind turbines. The wind farm continues to expand, and further alternative sources such as solar and waste incineration are promoted to ease the load on thermal plants, which still generate 70% of Madeira’s electricity.