Home » World » Venice lives “historic” day by activating dam for the first time to prevent flooding in the city – World

Venice lives “historic” day by activating dam for the first time to prevent flooding in the city – World

The Italian city of Venice activated, for the first time, a system of mechanical dams, in an attempt to protect the region due to the rise in the average level of sea water.

“Today everything is dry. We stopped the sea,” said the mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, in a ceremony attended by the engineers responsible for the project, called ‘Mose’, in reference to the biblical episode in which the prophet Moses had separated waters of the Red Sea.

The network of 78 yellow barriers at the entrance to the Venetian canals rises from the sea when the tide, driven by rain and strong winds, begins to rise. The ‘Mose’ was designed to protect Venice from tides up to three meters.

This Saturday, city officials predicted a 1.30 meter tide – a figure considerably lower than last November, with a 1.87 meter tide – but still enough to flood the lower areas of that city. Workers once again built pedestrian walkways in the most vulnerable places, such as in São Marcos Square, but the project proved to be effective.

“Today is an important day, it is a historic day because we should be full of water on the streets and instead everything is dry,” Massimo Milanese, a cafe manager, told Reuters.

The work cost about 7 billion euros and should be operational in 2016, but until now it had not been able to start, despite the fact that the works started in 2003, under the presidency of the Council of Ministers of Silvio Berlusconi.

Venice’s high tides, also known as “acqua alta” (in Italian), occur due to a combination of factors caused by climate change, ranging from the rise of the average sea level, to the abnormally high tides and the collapse of lands.

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