Water Tower San Nicolas (

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

: ''Watertoren San Nicolas'') is a

water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...

and museum in

San Nicolaas San Nicolaas ( nl, Sint Nicolaas) is southeast of Oranjestad, and is Aruba's second largest city. it has a population of 15,283, most of whom originate from the British Caribbean and rest of the Caribbean. History According to oral tradition, ...

Aruba Aruba ( , , ), officially the Country of Aruba ( nl, Land Aruba; pap, Pais Aruba) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands physically located in the mid-south of the Caribbean Sea, about north of the Venezuela peninsula of ...

. It was built in 1939 to relieve the

water shortage Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity: physical or economic water scarcity. Physical water scarcity is where ...

in Aruba. In 1979, the tower became obsolete and in 1996, it was transferred to the monument fund, and restored. In 2016, the industry museum opened in the tower.

History

The island of Aruba used to depend on rainwater and wells for its drinking water. In 1928, Lago Oil (Exxon) and

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard ou ...

opened refineries on the island. The population increase resulted in a water shortage which was temporarily relieved by shipments of drinking water from the United States. In 1933, a sea water

desalination Desalination is a process that takes away mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination refers to the removal of salts and minerals from a target substance, as in Soil salinity control, soil desalination, which is an issue f ...

plant was constructed at

Balashi Bushiribana and Balashi are the sites of two former gold smelters on the Caribbean island of Aruba. Bushiribana The Aruba Island Gold Mining Company built the Bushiribana smelter in 1825 to extract gold from the ore that was being mined in the ...

. A distribution network was laid out, and it was decided to build water towers at Oranjestad and

. In August 1939, the water tower was officially opened by governor Gielliam Wouters. The tower was designed by and is in

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style. The lower parts were used as offices for the civil service and the water authority. The tower is tall, and contained a reservoir located above the sea water level. In the 1970s, three dry years resulted in the existing plant running close to capacity. In 1979, a larger desalination plant in Balashi was opened, and the water towers were rendered obsolete. In 1996, ownership of the water tower was transferred to the monument fund who started to restore the building. On 8 March 2013, the tower was restored, and in 2016, the industry museum opened in the building.

Industry museum

The industry museum provides an overview of the industrial activities on Aruba. It has displays of the gold,

aloe ''Aloe'' (; also written ''Aloë'') is a genus containing over 650 species of flowering succulent plants.WFO (2022): Aloe L. Published on the Internet;http://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-4000001341. Accessed on: 06 Nov 2022 The most wid ...

, phosphate (

guano Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...

) and oil industries which were present on the island. The

public utility A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and r ...

companies of Aruba have permanent exhibitions of their activities.

References

{{Buildings in Aruba Museums in Aruba Buildings and structures in San Nicolaas Water towers in Aruba Art Deco architecture in Aruba Monuments of Aruba Towers completed in 1939