A rising tide threatened to flood Venice, Italy, recently, providing the first test for the city’s long-awaited flood barrier. The tide peaked around four feet, potentially affecting more than one-third of the city, but controversial underwater barriers contained the rising waters. A high tide of 135cm was forecast – one that would usually inundate the city. But after years of work, millions of euros and much incredulity, the MOSE barrier worked for the first time (bar a previous minor test against a low tide). The system comprises 78 barriers submerged where the Adriatic Sea meets the Venetian lagoon, which forms a dam during high tides.
The MOSE system has been in development since 1984, but corruption, ballooning costs and concerns from environmental groups created delays, The New York Times reported. Venice’s floods, ‘acqua alta’ (high water) in Italian, are caused by a combination of factors exacerbated by climate change – from rising sea levels and unusually high tides to land subsidence that has caused the ground level of the city to sink. Mose is designed to protect Venice from tides of up to 9.84ft, well beyond current records, and it’s success raised hopes of a bright future for the city, which has suffered from a calamitous fall in tourism due to COVID-19.
The timing of the successful test is a welcome relief to Venetians who endured the city’s worst flooding in 53 years in November 2019 and who see the climate crisis as a mounting threat that will jeopardize the survival of the city. In the city, Venetians — many of whom had barricaded their property against the incoming water — could hardly believe their luck. At El Fornareto bakery in Cannaregio, locals grinned as they queued for bread in sneakers instead of the gumboots they’d usually be wearing. In the church of San Nicolò dei Mendicoli in the southern Dorsoduro district — which normally floods at 130 centimeters — the priest, don Paolo Bellio even referred to the success in his evening sermon.
