PROJECT TO SAVE VENICE UNDERWAY

The Globe and Mail
Thursday, May 15, 2003

Venice, Italy — Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi inaugurated an ambitious $4-billion (U.S.) project to ease the flooding that regularly deluges this celebrated canal city.

The "Moses" project — named after the Biblical figure who parted the Red Sea — is expected to take about eight years.

Hinged barriers will be built on the seabed just off Venice and will be raised when high tides threaten the city.

"Venice is magnificent, the pride of all Italy," Mr. Berlusconi said on Wednesday as officials prepared to lay the first stone of the project.

"Attention to saving this patrimony, this marvel, is at the top of the government's concerns."

High water regularly floods into famed St. Mark's Square and other parts of Venice, and Venetians and tourists are then forced to walk on raised walkways to keep their feet try.

Making things worse, the city itself is sinking, the level of the Adriatic is rising and high tides are becoming more frequent. The project was devised after years of study.

Some environmental groups criticize it, saying the barriers will turn the lagoon into a stagnant pond.

Activists in small boats motored into the lagoon on Wednesday to protest against the project but were blocked by police from getting close to the ceremony.

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