As scientists around the world warn about the threat posed by rising seas, in Venice, Italy, there is a pressing need to act. But a 17-year project to build underwater floodgates in the city has been mired in delays and corruption.
But the drastic acceleration in the rise of sea levels, and the consequent higher and more frequent high tides, mean that there is a need for new, drastic solutions.
The project’s name, MOSE, is a nod to the prophet who parted the Red Sea. Its construction time frame is also of biblical proportion: The floodgate system has been under construction for the past 17 years and was initially meant to be completed by 2012. But a series of corruption scandals, rising costs and political controversies have delayed the project, which is yet to become fully operational.
There was no sign of the watertight box-shaped gates — they were resting at the bottom of the lagoon — but it was possible to walk 60 feet below the water to seabed level, and through one of the tunnels used by engineers to operate the barrier. There, Alessandro Soru, the chief engineer at MOSE, told journalists that once finished, it would be an unprecedented engineering feat.
Claudio Scarpa, director of the Hotels Association in Venice, says that the fear factor caused by the dramatic images of the flood is a bigger threat to Venice than the immediate damage caused by the water. Since November’s high tide, many among business owners and regular Venetians demanded answers on when the floodgate system would become operational, and if it would ever see the light of day. Others blamed the MOSE, not climate change, for the worsening of tides in recent years.
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