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VENICE: Venice’s St. Mark’s Square was under water on Tuesday (December 8) after a newly installed system of mobile artificial dams failed to activate.
Residents, long accustomed to perennial “acqua alta” or high water events, put on their rubber boots once again to cope with the floods that reached a height of 1.37 meters above sea level in the afternoon.
The waters drowned St. Mark’s Square, the lowest area of the Renaissance city at about a meter above sea level, and invaded the famous basilica, as many merchants blocked its entrances with wooden panels to keep the water out. .
A massive flood defense system called MOSE meant to protect the Venetian lagoon at high tide was finally installed in October.
The network of water-filled caissons is designed to rise in 30 minutes to create a barrier capable of withstanding a three-meter rise in water above normal.
The waters flowed towards the Basilica of San Marcos. (Photo: AFP / Andrea Pattaro)
But the system did not go live on Tuesday because the forecast wrongly predicted a rise of just 1.2 meters above sea level.
“Activating MOSE requires a higher forecast,” Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro told Italy’s Agi news agency.
“We will have to review the rules of the command post.”
The water reached a peak of 1.87 meters above sea level on November 12, 2019, one of the highest ever recorded. Dozens of churches declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO were damaged.
The MOSE infrastructure project began in 2003 but was plagued by cost overruns, corruption scandals and delays.
The project has cost around € 7 billion (US $ 8 billion), compared to an original estimate of two billion.
