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Water journey
The history of water and people at the Limassol Water Museum
The Water Museum in Limassol stands at the town’s lowest point on the site of a former pumping station and charts the history of this element in relation to people. ZOE CHRISTODOULIDES has a look around
“It was never a man’s job to take water back home, definitely not,” says an animated Klitos Paisas from the Limassol Water Department pointing me towards a black and white picture of a middle-aged lady carrying a rather large clay jug on her shoulders.
“Look, look over here at the crowd waiting round the fountain; not a man in sight,” he says in front of another picture. The year is sometime in the mid 1940s, and the place is Limassol. And why the emphasis on women carrying water? Because this is the recently awarded Limassol Water Museum (the only water museum on the island in fact) and once anyone enters the building, they’ll be taken back in time to the days when people had to fetch water for the whole family from a nearby well.
After all, it was only in the 1950s that pipes were connected to people’s residences, facilitating a constant flow of running water into each household. “You would have had to come from a rather wealthy family to have a running tap in your own home before that,” explains Klitos.
Make the effort to go down to the museum and you’ll pick up snippets of information that shed light on the simplest of things that are barely given a second thought most of the time.
Officially termed the Water Museum and Centre of Water Awareness Development, you’d be forgiven for missing the building on a drive down Roosevelt Avenue. Upon closer look however, you’ll spot a charming little place adjacent to the Limassol Water Board Offices.
The venue, which was renovated and opened as a museum two years ago, features a three-metre high water curtain for the full length of the two main windows, providing a unique and impressive point of reference for passersby. This is topped off by a deck floor leading up to the entrance which passes between the water curtain and a shallow feature pool.
“I’m sure you want to see the main attraction,” says Klitos switching on a series of spotlights that shine bright on the so called “water machine.” Probably the most important fact worth noting at this point is that this renovated building used to be the Limassol Water Pumping Station, built in 1925.
“Where we’re standing right now is the lowest point in Limassol and it’s where all the rain collected so the pump would always find water underground,” explains Klitos. “That’s why they chose this spot for the station all those years ago, which used to be pretty much in the middle of nowhere.”
The water was then transferred through water pipes to the Limassol Water Tower from where it was distributed to the centre of town. At the time it was a pioneering water system not only for Cyprus but for the whole geographical region.
There came a point however when the system was no longer sufficient as the town of Limassol began to sprawl well beyond previous parameters. Klitos then points towards a map illustrating the growth, as the water board of the time decided that dams needed to be built, starting with one at Kapsalos. By 1951 there was no longer a need for the pumping station as a more modern system came into use leading from the dams.
Taking a step away from the old pump, the Cyprus Department of Antiquities has also made a number of other important archaeological exhibits available to visitors, with guests having the opportunity to see a wide number of rare objects and instruments used for pumping, recording consumption, quality testing and other water related activities.
With plenty of information geared to young children, the museum has also set up a whole series of panels topped off by video screenings to keep young ones entertained during educational visits. From the beginning of life on earth, to the emergence of technologies facilitating the distribution of water, the aim is to take kids on a journey that explores the vital relationship between people and water.
And while all the writing on the panels is in Greek, there’s plenty of visual material to back up all the facts with specialised tours available for English speaking schools. “We had 5,000 young visitors here in the first year we opened and we superseded that number last year. Sometimes I’m shocked by just how much all this seems to fascinate them,” says Klitos.
As I’m about to leave the building I catch a glimpse of a series of old pictures depicting a number of workers fixing and installing water pipes by the side of the road in the 1950s. And it’s the most trivial thing that seems to fascinate me as I realise that every single worker (I count at least 15) poses for the camera with a cigarette in his mouth.
“Oh yeah, it used to be the manly thing to do back them. They would take out their cigarettes just for the camera no matter if they were knee deep in mud or about to fall into a pool of water,” points out Klitos. “A workman couldn’t be seen in a photo without a cigarette!” As I turn to walk away I realise that it’s tiny details like these that make learning about the not so distant past all that more interesting.
Limassol Water Museum
66 Franklin Roosevelt Avenue, opposite LOEL winery, Limassol. €1 entry. Opening hours 10am-1pm. Tel: 25-830157
