The history of the Mgarr ix-Xini pumping station in Gozo

At the end of the 19th century, the water supply in Gozo mainly relied on natural springs and rainwater collected in cisterns and reservoirs.

However, a severe drought in 1887 and 1888 caused a serious water crisis, prompting colonial authorities to consider engineering projects for extracting rainwater from underground.

In this context, engineer Osbert Chadwick (for whom Wied il-Qlejgħa in Malta is named) proposed to dig shafts in the Mgarr ix-Xini valley, where the geomorphological conditions indicated an abundant water presence.

In 1897, after the source at Għajnsielem could no longer meet the demand, his proposal was adopted, and work on the project began.

The plant consisted of shafts and tunnels underground (mines) that collected water at the water table level, which was then pumped up using a steam engine powered by coal (some remnants of which still remain). The complex also included chambers carved into the rock, bridges, and shafts that carried pipes to reservoirs at Nadur and Ta’ Cenc, allowing water to be distributed by gravity to various Gozo villages.

Over the years, the station was modernized, and between 1925 and 1927, another engine was added, followed by the installation of electrically operated pumps by the Harland company in 1949.

However, with the construction of a new station in Xewkija in 1959, the operation of Mgarr ix-Xini became economically unsustainable and was closed in the late 1960s.

Today, the Mgarr ix-Xini station remains a monument of industrial heritage—an engineering testament to the efforts and technical skills of engineers during the colonial period, as well as a significant milestone in the development of Gozo’s water supply system.

At its peak, the Mgarr ix-Xini freshwater station was tapping mean-sea-level groundwater through a system of underground galleries stretching about 4,600 feet beneath the valley. This network allowed the extraction of roughly 190,000 gallons of water per day, making it the principal source of drinking water for Gozo in the late 19th and early 20th century.

The complex was much more than a single building on the cliff face. Trial shafts sunk into the valley floor were connected at the water-table level by mines (galleries) that channelled water into a central pit. From there, the coal-fired steam pumps lifted it up through rock-cut stairwells and service shafts. Separate vertical shafts were used for exhausting flue gases through a chimney and for lowering coal into an underground bunker, while a series of chambers carved into the south side of the valley housed the boilers, engine room and ancillary machinery.

Outside, one of the most distinctive elements is the three-arched concrete bridge that still spans the valley floor in front of the station.

This structure was designed to carry a cast-iron pipeline across the valley and into an excavated tunnel leading up to the high-level reservoir at Nadur, while a secondary pipeline supplied the Ta’ Ċenċ reservoir.

Together, these reservoirs allowed water to be distributed by gravity to surrounding villages such as Sannat, Xewkija and Munxar.

During the interwar period, the system was upgraded again: a secondary engine with a rated capacity of around 600,000 gallons was installed in an additional chamber, and the underground galleries were extended by roughly another 170 feet to increase the capture area and yield. After World War II, two Harland electrically driven pumps and a new five-million-gallon reservoir at Ta’ Ċenċ significantly boosted storage, with that single reservoir providing about twice the previous storage capacity on its own.

When the new Xewkija pumping station was built and tied into the same gallery system, engineers chose to deepen the Mgarr ix-Xini galleries by an average of about 2.5 feet so that the groundwater would naturally flow towards Xewkija instead. The energy needed to pump this larger volume of water from Xewkija was still lower than the labour and running costs of operating two separate stations, so Mgarr ix-Xini was finally abandoned and left to decay once its last engine drivers and assistants were redeployed.