Looks like Venice at low tide. Photo

An unexpected side of Venice.

For the second year in a row due to low tide the water level in Venice reaches record low levels, and the city is almost drained. Tourists come here hoping to ride in the gondolas, but their plans are shattered on the harsh reality, because without water, the main form of Venetian transport simply stuck on the muddy and silty bottom of the channels.

Exceptionally low water levels caused by abnormal tides and dangerously low rainfall in North-Eastern Italy. Although the low tide for this time of year is a normal phenomenon, this year the water level dropped to 70 cm below average. This is surprising, given that Venice is gradually disappearing under the water and now floods in the city have become more commonplace than the tides.

Low water in the channels has exposed all the dirt in town. Years of poor service Venetian canals visible in the overgrown along the banks of canals the mounds of mud and silt. Because of insufficient purification, the depth of the channels decreases, and this increases the likelihood of floating debris into the engines of boats. Without water also became visible literally crumbling foundations of historic buildings.

The Venetian authorities always apathetic attitude to the question of cleaning the channels. Procleaning of channels have started to do only recently, since the late 1990s, after almost fifty years of neglect. In Venice also there is no modern sewage system.

From time immemorial all human sewage was fused into the channels, although in large buildings, wastewater must undergo some pre-treatment before they will be in the channels. In some Palazzo has its own septic tanks, but there is always some amount flowing into the channels. So in Venice there is always a recognizable odor.

In recent years the city Council spent less money on service channels, redistributing funds on the completion of the MOSE complex flood gateways for 5.4 billion euros, which will protect the Venetian lagoon from the constant flooding plaguing the town.

For over 50 years from 1970-ies local production blithely pumped groundwater from aquifers, and the city dipped by about 23 cm For the last couple of decades flooding has slowed noticeably, but the city still falls about 1-2 millimeters per year. In these circumstances, it is particularly strange that the Venice canals were left without water.

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