Climate Change affects, Gondolas no longer floating on Venice canals

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Climate change is finally showing its gloomy face on the best aspects of earth and humanity one after another. Venice, known as the City of Water is no longer what it used to be. The iconic Gondolas of the city are now no longer floating on water, which used to be the pride of the city. The canals have dried up lately due to lack of rain leaving the canals all mud stalled, while Gondolas are stranded all over.

Image Text 1: In Venice, Gondolas on its canals is the primary means of public transport

This January, Italy experienced its hottest weather in at least 250 years. In first half of the month, temperatures soared up to 4 degrees above average. Also, rainfall have been lower than average in the country this year. Additionally, the ‘Super Blue Moon’ made tides worst in the city. Owing to such conditions water in the city’s canal came down 70 cm lower than normal. Venice witnessed several such dryings before and this is not the first time its canals dried up completely. The last time Venice witnessed a record low tide was back in 1934.

Low tides in winters is a common occurrence for the city, but this time, the effects went up a bit above the average. Seasonal tide is not the only reason triggering the canal’s drying. Mud and sediments are not being removed from the canal since sometime making the bed shallow. Per local reports, a lot was invested in the flood-barrier project and it left authorities with no money to clean up the canals.

Venice is facing another major problem. Its actual population is shrinking but the footfall of tourists is increasing alarmingly. Venice now have about 55,000 people as original inhabitants. This figure was 175,000 before a couple of years. Meanwhile, the number of tourist increased to 30 million every year. This means, at anytime of the year, number of tourist in the city might be higher than number of actual residents. This creates additional requirement of maintaining public amenities, especially its heritage canals.

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Image Text 2: Gondolas struck up on a dried canal of the city.

There were also instances when the canals flooded creating larger problems for people of Venice. Per some studies, Venice is shrinking at the rate of 1-2 mm per year. In Venice, Gondolas are the only popular means of public transportation. The city is in need of an efficient management to maintain and continue its heritages.