Together with other traditions - such as the performing and craft arts, social rituals and festivals or knowledge about nature – traditional irrigation is part of Europe's living intangible cultural heritage.
The International Centre for Traditional Irrigation in Europe IZTB supports the last traditional and thus active irrigation systems in Europe, as well as the regenerative systems, together with their unique cultural techniques and other aspects of intangible cultural heritage. The irrigators and their irrigation communities pass on their living, well-maintained ‘art of watering’ from generation to generation in accordance with established rules and organisational forms and, in particular, preserve the irrigation facilities, characteristic tools and big experience through their work.
The traditional irrigation techniques, which are based on a great deal of manual labour, are also valuable witnesses to a regionally diverse cultural history and building culture. Traditional irrigation therefore plays an important role in regional identity and generally represents a living and valuable cultural heritage.
