The mayor of Italy’s sinking city has declared that “Venice is on its knees.”
This week two consecutive days of flooding has damaged iconic buildings and resulted in at least one death.
Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro has blamed climate change for the exceptionally intense "acqua alta" or highwater mark, which peaked at 1.87 metres.
"The situation is dramatic… we ask the government to help us. The cost will be high. This is the result of climate change," tweeted Mr Brugnaro.
But climate change isn’t the only cause of flooding. Construction on a barrier system that would stop seawater from flooding the city was supposed to have been completed last year.
"With respect to the sea, us Venetians are 0.5 centimetres lower every year,” Dr Luigi Cavaleri, Venice-born oceanographer and former president of the Italian Institute of Marine Studies of the National Research Renter (Centro Nazionale per la Ricerca), told Dateline.
“It means that in 50 years, high waters will become an everyday occurrence and not an exceptional phenomenon. We will practically be underwater."
A scandal-plagued solution
Dr Cavaleri said a solution could be a barrier system at the entrance of the Lagoon, which, once completed, could shelter the city from the high waters.
The system, called MOSE ("Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico" or Experimental Electromechanical Module), is an integrated system consisting of rows of mobile gates installed at three lagoon inlets that are expected to isolate the Venetian Lagoon temporarily from the sea during high tides. MOSE is designed to protect Venice and the lagoon from tides of up to 3 metres.
The project, initiated in 2003, was 83 per cent completed by 2013. After a series of delays and scandals the 2018 deadline was not achieved and it is now slated to be completed by 2020, according to the local press.
In the aftermath of the flooding, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has promised MOSE will be completed by the new deadline.
As the city grapples with rising floodwaters this week, local residents continue to fight to control tourist numbers they claim is destroying the the iconic Italian destination.
Overcrowding a pertinent problem
In January this year officials restricted crowds for the Carnival celebrations so that only 11,000 visitors could attend the event.
Almost 20,000 visitors were excluded.
There should be a reservation system where tourists book ahead of time to visit the city.
Barbara Warburton Giliberti from No Big Ships, a group campaigning against cruise ships and overpopulation in Venice, said, “Residents are so out-numbered we feel like an endangered species.”
“It is almost impossible to get on the public transport. Prices are tourist prices, much higher than any provincial town of the same size. Tourists do not respect our town, our customs and habits. They walk rough-shod over us and feel they own our hometown.”
Ms Biliberti told Dateline that residents on their daily commute need to battle through throngs of tourists taking selfies. She believes there should be a reservation system where tourists book ahead of time to visit the city.
“There has to be a maximum number of tourists per day,” she said.
