Venice Doesn't Want to Be Another New Orleans

A gigantic engineering project, slated for completion in 2010, aims to save the mystical Italian city of canals from the encroaching sea. Environmental groups sound the alarm on the work's potential environmental impact.

MILAN - After the tragic flooding of the southern U.S. city of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, debate has been rekindled in the Italy on Project Moses, a system of movable dams to prevent the city of Venice, known for its canals, from being swallowed up by the waters of the Adriatic Sea.

The giant engineering project, entrusted to the New Consortium of Venice, made up of 40 companies, began work three years ago, and should finish by 2010, at a cost of 4.8 billion euros.

The project is, according to its creators, a sign that Italy does indeed have disaster prevention policies in place, unlike New Orleans, where the levee system collapsed under the impact of the devastating Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29.

But Project Moses has many critics and faces local opposition for its potential negative environmental impacts.

"It is a useless project. It wont' prevent waters from rising in Venice and the islands (on which it sits). It is dangerous because the lagoons are contaminated with chemical products used in agriculture. And it is irreversible; it can't be modified even if it destroys the environment," Cristiano Gasparetto, activist with the Committee to Save Venice, told Tierramérica.

The Committee comprises non-governmental environmental groups and representatives of the Green Party.

Venice, considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world and which draws 10 million tourists annually, does not face the threat of hurricanes, but rather the threat of the rising waters of the sea that surrounds it, resulting from glacier melt caused by global warming.

The city dates back to the fifth century, built on thousands of wooden platforms over marshlands and islands in the lagoon of the same name. The lagoon is crescent-shaped and is separated from the Adriatic by a chain of islets and barrier islands.

Since 1900, Venice has sunk around 13 centimeters, and could sink another 20 in the next five years, say experts.

Every year, between October and March, the winds blowing from the southeast and the tides bring what Venetians call "acqua alta", or high water, into the lagoon, causing some 100 days of flooding of more than 80 cm above normal sea levels.

The high water can reach a mark of more than one meter up the walls of buildings and monuments, and alters the Venetians' daily routines. In 2003, the famed San Marco square flooded 87 times.

But the worst inundation in history occurred Nov. 4, 1966, when the streets, plazas and ground floors of homes were covered in more than 15 cm of water.

Project Moses (Mose, in Italian), in planning for 20 years, consists of levees to isolate Venice lagoon from the Adriatic.

The name comes from the Italian initials for "experimental electro-mechanical module".

"Moses does not eliminate the causes of high water and is limited to preventing exceptional water levels, which can reach 110 cm. That means it will only be useful three or four times a year, while the rest of the 'acquas altas' will invade Venice," Federico Antinori, activist with the Italian Bird League, affiliated with BirdWatch International and part of the Committee to Save Venice, told Tierramérica.

The Moses system of movable floodgates -- enormous pontoons that are 20 meters wide, 30 meters high and five meters deep -- will be installed in the three mouths of the Venice lagoon, at Lido, Chioggia and Malamocco.

When the tide does not surpass a depth of one meter, the pontoons will be filled with water and sit on the sea bed. But when the tide is higher than one meter, a hydraulic system will fill them with air to rise to the surface and block water coming in from the Adriatic.

"Without Moses, the same as 1966 could happen again. The movable dams will protect Venice from the dangers of high tides and from flooding. New Orleans is an example of the lack of investment and prevention capacity," spokeswoman for the New Consortium, Flavia Faccioli, told Tierramérica.

The Venice lagoon has bands of muddy land that serve as sources of food for ducks and other birds, and sandbars that many bird species use for nesting.

Each year, some 110,000 aquatic birds arrive in this area to rest, with hundreds of species migrating between Africa and Europe following this route.

"According to opinion polls, most Venetians are not in favor of Project Moses, which does not respect the environment. It will eat up two areas that are protected for their biodiversity, and only closes the gates to the port. Under it all is a political problem of this government, which wants to be the executor of major public works," Flavio del Corso, a former Venice city councilman for the Green Party, said in a Tierramérica interview.

The natural wealth of the Venice lagoon also suffers the impacts of ship traffic. Some 25 million tons of goods pass through it annually aboard big cargo and tanker ships, in addition to tourist cruises.

"Doubts were often expressed during the project's approval process. We always carried out controls and verifications. There were five international experts who conducted studies approved by the Environment Ministry," said the New Consortium's Faccioli.

The Committee to Save Venice will bring the case before the European Commission, with the argument that there are simpler and less costly alternatives. A gate at Lido, keeping out the cruise ships, would reduce pressure on the lagoon and curb the inflow of water.

According to the government's national research council, CNR, which promotes studies concerning social, economic, technological and scientific questions, that alternative would reduce water levels some 20 cm and would give Venice the "face" it had in 1800.

Another project comes from the Venetian mayor's office, which opposes Project Moses. It involves a similar system to that of the Netherlands and Norway to prevent seas from flooding low-lying areas.

These alternative works would cost a quarter of the Moses budget, would take only four years to complete, say their defenders. "Moses has very high maintenance costs. Resources would be absorbed by this Pharaonic project, leaving the treasury empty for other works."

"There are economic interests of the big Italian companies" involved in Project Moses, said Paolo Perlazza, with the Worldwide Fund for Nature, in a conversation with Tierramérica.

* Francesca Colombo is a Tierramérica contributor.