Venice’s Iconic canals are drying up; Drought alert in Italy
Images of docked water taxis, gondolas, and ambulance boats of Venice’s secondary canals are drying up and have garnered a lot of attention on social media. Experts believe that a prolonged long spell of low tides and lack of rain are responsible for the issue in the city, AP reported.
The low water levels have come as a surprise because Venice is known to suffer from frequent flooding. In 2019, it witnessed the worst floods since 1966, which resulted in damages worth hundreds of millions of euros.
According to UNESCO, momentary settlements in the 5th century gradually became permanent here, comprising land-dwelling peasants and fishermen. “Venice and its lagoon landscape is the result of a dynamic process which illustrates the interaction between people and the ecosystem of their natural environment over time,” UNESCO states.
The AP report said the situation has forced medical crews to tie up ambulance boats farther away from their destination. The crews have to “sometimes hand-carry stretchers over long distances since their vessels can’t progress up canals, reduced to a trickle of water and muck,” the report added.
