With only 300 mm rain a year the area of Lom and Sjåk has almost desert conditions. At the same time mountain farming has been, and still is, very important. To make the crop grow, locals had to collect water from the high mountain areas.
An old expression in Lom says, "Give us sun, our Lord, and we shall provide ourselves with water". The sunlight, with long daytime hours in summer, resulted in glacier melting water. By community efforts water was brought to the fields, and fields bathed in sun and sprinkled water provided crops and welfare.
The waterways were developed by the farmers during the 17th and 18th Century. They proved to be resilient and were in use well into the 1980s. Although many wooden waterways gradually were replaced by modern solutions and are now protected cultural sites and installations, many farmers still use the ponts in the mountains and the ditches as a back up to more modern, electric installations.
The longest waterway is 20 km, and 68 facilities of this type are registered.
Read about the field trip and the worskshops of the Greek/Norwegian Water Matters team.
See why the water ways in Lom are still in use:
The water ways are also used for hiking: