Postcards from Havana : Story of the Albear Aqueduct

[El Presidente]

Great piece of history 

 

 

At the beginning of the 19th century, there was a severe shortage of water. After having negotiated with several French engineers in 1852, the Governor of Cuba José Gutiérrez de la Concha decided to create a commission to propose solutions for the water supply. The commission was to be chaired by Francisco de Albear, at that time colonel of the Corps of Engineers of the Spanish army and chairman of the Public Works Committee of Cuba. His main assistant was José Luis Casaseca, Director of the Institute of Chemical Investigations of Havana.

 

The investigations carried out by De Albear’s team were extensive; he investigated various alternatives among which the use of the Luyanó, Martín Pérez, Guasabacoa, Marianao or Almendares rivers as well of the Cacahual or del Calvario springs all of which he rejected for various reasons. He finally settled for the use of the del Vento springs, both due to the superior water quality and for the possibility of conveying the water by gravity, the source being located 41 meters higher than the city. Chemical studies carried out by José Luis Casaseca lead to the conclusion that the water of the del Vento springs had to be isolated from the Almendares River to prevent a deterioration of the water quality which was of great concern due to the tropical location of the island.^[1]

 

 

In 1861, the construction started under the direction of Francisco de Albear. The progress was however extremely slow due to the scarcity of available funds and to the disturbances created by the Ten Years' War.

Work on the water distribution network started only in 1874 when Francisco de Albear made the first complete topographic survey of Havana and produced a 1:5000 plan of the city. Based on these surveys, he completed the design of the network and fixed the location of the water storage tanks.^[6]

In the meanwhile, the water supply of the city had worsened, as a result of the project's construction delays. After the Peace of Zanjón was signed with the independentist rebels on February 10, 1878, the first part of the canal could finally be completed and, on June 23, 1878, the link of the De Vento Canal and the filters of the Fernando VII aqueduct could finally be inaugurated by Governor Arsenio Martínez-Campos Antón.^[7]

The project received a prize at the Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia. It was also distinguished with the Gold Medal of the Éxposition universelle of Paris 1878, where it was considered an engineering masterwork.[13][14] It is considered, along with the Bacunayagua Bridge, the Tunnel of Havana,[15] and the FOCSA Building, one of the seven wonders of Cuban engineering.[16]

The Albear Aqueduct is still active as it works without electric power and continues using as sole energy the force with which springs from its source. Supplies all five central municipalities of the city of Havana: Havana Vieja, Centro Habana, Cerro, October 10 and Plaza de the Revolution, which is approximately the 12% of the population of Havana today. The Albear Aqueduc was selected by the National Union of Architects and Construction Engineers of Cuba, UNAICC, as one of the Seven Wonders of Engineering in Cuba. In view of its heritage values, on January 9 of 2009, in commemoration of the 193 anniversary of birth of Albear, the Historic Aqueduct System from the city of Havana, which includes the Zanja Real, the Fernando VII Aqueduct and the Albear Aqueduct. It was declared a National Monument of the Republic of Cuba.

 

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