Orihuela Council is preparing a request that it will submit to UNESCO, proposing that the traditional irrigation system, that supplies water to many of the smallholders and farmers around the city, be declared a World Heritage Site.
This was announced on Friday by the mayor Pepe Vegara, during a visit to the refurbishment works that are currently being carried out at the twin waterwheels, Moquita and Pando, in the rural district of Las Norias, said to be the jewel of Orihuela’s thousand-year-old orchard.
The mayor visited the site, along with the councillors of Historical Heritage and Agriculture, Matías Ruiz and Noelia Grao, and the Water Judge of the Private Court of Orihuela, José Bernabé.
Vegara said that “we must value everything that makes up our traditional irrigation system because it is an ancient system that, even after many hundreds of years, still provides us with the most efficient use of water.”
The mayor said that he considered the waterwheels “a unique work in Spain that we have to protect and to publicise”, because “this environment is part of our culture, our history and our DNA. Water is part of our way of living.”
He stressed the importance of this rehabilitation project that began in 2017, when the City Council had to sign an agreement with the Private Water Court by which the rights of the waterwheels were ceded for 30 years.
The Councillor for Historical Heritage, Matías Ruiz, said that the twin waterwheels constitute “a unique asset”. The objective, he continued, is “to create a link with the environment and with the city of Orihuela. We want to promote a route which will use water as a common thread, where we can provide the walker or the cyclist with points of interest as they pass through the gardens and along the river, that will make it more attractive to visit these places”.
In addition, he said that “it will all go hand in hand to ensure that our history of traditional irrigation becomes a World Heritage Site”, while thanking the work of the Association of Friends of the Moquita and Pando Twin Ferris Wheels, which has been carrying out activities for years in order to publicise the waterwheels with guided tours for schoolchildren, book presentations and exhibitions.
Ruiz also wants to build a Visitors Centre on the site of the twin waterwheels which have their roots dating back to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
“They are the only example of double waterwheels that survive in the country,” explained Pedro Valero, president of the association Friends of the twin Ferris wheels Moquita and Pando. “We are fortunate still to have them, thanks to the efforts of many farmers over hundreds of years,” he added. Therefore, he insisted, we must maintain and celebrate this “jewel of the millenary irrigation of Orihuela”.
