© Reuters
In December, tourists still get their feet wet when they walk the famous Piazza San Marco. But Venice now faces another problem. It is so dry that gondolas and water taxis in some canals are simply stuck in the mud because the water is so low. Experts say it will take 50 days of rain to rid Italy of its drought problem. Hence we hope that we will not have a summer like the summer of 2022.
Thierry Goman
It’s a little sad to see that. Tourists watch from idyllic bridges across Venice’s many canals onto thick, dirty mud. Elsewhere, there is still a bit of water, but very little sailing by gondola or water taxi. Most gondolas have never experienced that before. Not at this time of year anyway.
“Usually it’s so humid here that the stands around San Marco square fall into the water. That’s the reason for huge investments in flood defense. But now the opposite problem appears. Venice is dry, “says Mayor Luigi Brugnaro.
©AP
©AP
Experts say there are several reasons for this. Summer 2022 was the driest in Italy in seventy years. The lack of water was never completely updated, because the winters had also been very dry so far. Today’s Alpine snowfall is fifty percent less than the winter average. But the position of the Moon also causes this very low tide.
“Not only Venice was affected. There is a general problem of drought in Italy,” says environmental group Legambiente. Last summer, Italy groaned under the weight of heat and drought. The Po River, northern Italy’s artery that runs from the Alps to the Adriatic Sea, remains historically low. The river received 61 percent less water than normal at this time of year.
The water level of Lake Garda also hit a record low. You can now walk up to San Biagio Island. And near Pavia, in the Po Valley, the water is three meters below zero.
Read also. The world famous canals of Venice are empty of water
“What we see in Venice now is a general problem in Italy. We need fifty days of rain to bring the groundwater back to a decent level,” says climate expert Massimiliano Pascoe of the Italian Scientific Research Institute CNR.
Climate scientist Luca Mercalli doesn’t want to panic yet. “Let’s wait for spring, when the Po Valley usually gets the most rain.” According to him, there is a “good chance” that the rains in April and May can still rectify the situation. “If there is not enough rain and we have another hot and dry summer like the one in 2022, we will be in big trouble.”
The latest weather maps announce a lot of rain and snow in the Alps over the next few days.
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