Last Saturday the city activated the Mose (acronym for Sperimentale Elettromeccanico Module) to defend itself from the dreaded ‘acqua alta’. The 78 gates that make up this infrastructure installed under the sea were raised to contain winds of up to 40 km per hour and a high tide peak of 125 cm.
The Venice City Council confirmed that the Mose went into operation at 08.35 am and was completed at 09.52 on Saturday, October 3 (as can also be seen in the video uploaded by the Il Dolomiti YouTube channel). The containment system worked for the first time in this successful drill.
–
St. Mark’s Square and other representative areas of the city remained dry and without incident. On Sunday, the city council reported that it was not necessary to operate the Mose.
In fact, in the Plaza de San Marcos, only a small pool of water appeared, despite being located very close to the sea. If this has not been activated sluice system floods could have occurred that on many occasions reach the knees of citizens and tourists.
–
The truth is that the Mose has been a construction that has involved a large outlay: 7,000 million euros and should be operational in 2016, according to The country. Delays have been piling up on an infrastructure that began construction in 2003.
–
