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Twentieth century progress has for years been undermining one of Europe’s most historic cities, Venice, the city on a lagoon, whose picturesque image of romantic gondolas on narrow canals is being threatened by a strange disaster
After years of dilly-dallying, the Italian government has ordered a £200 million rescue operation to save Venice from sinking into the sea.
For decades, this city of gondolas, medieval palaces and 20,000 fabulous art treasures has been descending inexorably into her lagoon. The rate may have been measured in millimetres annually, but Venice’s doom has been as certain as the wind that blows from the south-east, sending tidal waves sweeping into the canals, across the squares and streets.
For at least 20 days between October and April every year, when the flood threat is at its height, Venetians still roll up their ground floor carpets and move their furniture upstairs. They know, too, that Venice is actually rotting as she founders from the pollution of oil-discharging ships, the tankers that ply across the sea to the mainland, and the smoke and effluent from chemical factories on the distant horizon. The story of the gradual disaster is made complete with the realisation that in ten years, the romantic gondola may well have vanished, a victim of rising costs and the competing motor launch.
Twentieth-century progress has for years been spelling the death of a city immortalised by poets and artists . . . the home of Lord Byron . . . the setting for the opening of Shakespeare’s “Othello.” But, at last, the politicians have accepted the challenge as a direct result of a government crisis last autumn.
A cabinet shake-up gave the Republican Party, the only political group pledged to save Venice, the key positions which enable them to do that. They resurrected a special law passed two years previously – and subsequently ignored – permitting ¬£200 million to be spent on stopping Venice sliding into the sea. Even that law had taken years to receive approval. It had reached the statute book after international appeals and pressure had grown from the major flood of November 4, 1966, when historic St. Mark’s Square was under three feet (nearly a metre) of water and untold damage was caused to paintings, architecture, tapestries and rare treasures of all kinds.
The new cabinet called for action but it was not until the spring that the guide-lines for rescuing Venice were announced. The most ambitious project involves producing a structure across the three main channels.
Experiments have been carried out successfully with an ingenious inflatable dam manufactured by the Italian firm of Pirelli and a construction company, Furlanis, who devised a rubber clad nylon tube capable of being inflated at nearly 200 gallons (909 litres) of water a second, raising the dam well above sea level to repel the tides. When not in use, it would lie flat and unseen on the seabed. A small version has already resisted fast tidal waves, high winds and an abrasive sea bed without leakages.
The rubber dam, which would cost between £14 million and £20 million, has attracted considerable interest from the government, which worked out further safeguards for the future of Venice.
The new guidelines recommend a ban on the construction of further refineries, a tight rein on the number of tankers entering the lagoon and even greater control on expanding industrial areas on the mainland. Particular emphasis was placed on the need to curb industrialisation, probably because the factories are believed to have been responsible for undermining the foundations of Venice. According to scientists, the island, on which the city is built actually floats on an underground cushion of water, which is gradually being deflated by artesian wells that pipe it to the industrial suburbs.
At the same time, land reclamation has raised the level of the lagoon, which is increasing naturally by 1.5 millimetres a year. This is a direct result of the rise in the level of the oceans due to the melting of the polar regions.
Do such minute measurements really matter? Yes, when the city is Venice whose historic buildings are sinking by 2.5 centimetres – or one inch – every five years.
But the inevitable danger looming above Venice has not been the only cause for sadness among Venetians. They have watched the rising damp, caused by flooding, mar many of their priceless paintings and buildings, seen the blue canals turn to brown from pollution, and observed billowing factory smoke corrode their fine buildings.
The melodious voice of the gondolier is growing fainter, too. Modern people prefer speedier craft, it seems, Today, there are fewer than 500 gondolas compared with 10,000 in 1750, and only two master builders capable of building the craft are still active. A gondola that once lasted generations now has a life of only 20 years because of the buffeting it receives from the wash of powered boats. With fewer gondolas, fares have risen with the inevitable result that the gondolier is being driven out of business. The water buses and taxis receive special subsidies from the municipal authorities, but there is nothing for the gondolier.
Even the population of Venice has fallen. Many people live on the mainland away from the flood dangers, commuting daily on the water buses that ply up and down the Grand Canal where a plaque commemorates Lord Byron, who lived in the city from 1818 to 1819.
But at least some hope has arisen from the government’s promise to tackle the many problems besetting the beautiful city. The original “Venice in Peril” fund, which won world-wide response, was organised by Sir Ashley Clarke, former British Ambassador in Rome, who lives in Venice. He also co-ordinates the work of many international committees devoted to the preservation of the city.
Sir Ashley champions the idea of the Pirelli inflatable dam to prevent further floods. But the experts are still studying alternative methods, including permanent gates at the mouths of the lagoon. Sir Ashley is strongly opposing such a plan, which he believes would make the existing situation even worse.
For a permanent structure across the entrances to the lagoon would, he argues, stop the tides from flushing out waste and raise the real possibility that the waters once brimming with fish and flora would become a dead lake.
Carrying out the government’s rescue plan depends largely on the rate of inflation, which has a stranglehold on the West. It has already eaten away severely at the £200 million approved two years ago. But more funds are on their way into the coffers of the conservationists, who believe they now have a fighting chance of saving the city they love.