Thanks to the sixteen-kilometer-long water pipeline, potable water flowed from the Brussels taps. Previously, the capital's inhabitants had to quench their thirst with heavily polluted Zenne water.

Aqueduct

Some effort was required when constructing the water pipeline, for example, to bridge the valley of the Patiaux River in Mont-Saint-Pont. A two-hundred-meter-long aqueduct was erected there, supported by 27 arches.

Water would flow through it for over a hundred years, until 1972. Then, the Brussels drinking water company modernized its water supply and abandoned the aqueduct. Since then, it has been crumbling, following the example of its Roman ancestors.

Falling stones

The owner of the aqueduct, the Brussels drinking water company Vivaqua, also submitted a demolition permit. However, residents were now so devoted to the crumbling aqueduct that their protest in 2014 resulted in the protection of the aqueduct and the surrounding landscape as a monument.