40. Supplying the city: water distribution and use
Control of water has been crucial in shaping the city since its foundation. Over time a wide range of techniques have made it easier to harness, convey, store and distribute water across the urban area and also to drain it away.
Ever since ancient Barcino, the city’s inhabitants have needed to organise their water resources. In the two millennia between the Roman colony and the industrial society which built the Eixample from the mid-19th century onwards, Barcelona used gravity-fed water systems coupled with a variable supply from wells.