600 Years of Madeira: Levadas

Originally built for agriculture, today levadas produce hydroelectric power too

Years: 1425 — 2020

The “Levadas”, from the Portuguese verb “levar” (to carry) are a system of channels or aqueducts of many kilometres in length, mostly bordering mountains, but also going through them, to bring water from different sources to its intermediate or final destinations.

The origin of the levadas dates back to the first settlements of Madeira in the first quarter of the 15th century, when water became necessary to irrigate farm lands, particularly sugar cane fields – the first crop of high economic value in Madeira. Water was also essential for the first mills and sugar factories.

With the ongoing expansion of farming operations, first with sugar cane, then later with vineyards, and today with bananas, the network of levadas kept expanding throughout the island, and their construction demanded more advanced techniques.

The more recent levadas handle greater flows and their cross-section may reach one meter twenty centimeters in depth and a meter in width. They can be dozens of kilometers long, most commonly built of concrete.

In the first four centuries after the island’s initial colonization, the arduous construction of the levadas was left to private initiative, carried out by owners of springs or the lands to be irrigated, either individually or grouped into associations of “heréus”, co-owner farmers who own a share of the levada water and pay for the maintenance of the waterway.

Starting in the 19th century, in light of economic difficulties, specifically in agriculture due to the crisis in wine production, these canals began to be built by the state or with state aid, leading to the emergence of the so-called “state levadas”. “Levada Velha do Rabaçal” was the first to benefit from public funding. Work on opening this levada began in 1835 and was only completed in 1860, evidence of the technical and financial difficulties encountered in completing such an undertaking.

An interesting fact is that many levadas built for the purpose of irrigating farmlands would also be used for watermills and to power sawmills. Similarly, due to the fact that up until the beginning of the 20th century, there was no system of running water to homes, so rural residents were forced to wash clothes in the creeks and levadas or even resort to cisterns for water storage.

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