Venice, the ‘City of Canals’ now facing drought; canals run dry due to low tide and lack of rain

Venice is a popular destination for travel and arguably one of Italy’s most picturesque cities.

A designated UNESCO World Heritage site, it comprises 118 tiny islands linked by winding canals and beautiful bridges, earning the sobriquets the ‘City of Canals’ and ‘The Floating City’.

This tourist favourite is now facing another drought with weeks of dry winter weather resulting in country’s rivers and lakes to dry up.

Venice where flooding is normally the primary concern, faces unusually low tides which makes it difficult for gondolas, water taxis and ambulances to navigate some of its famous canals.

The warning by scientists and environment groups has raised concerns of drought particularly, after an emergency last summer, when the Alpine mountains received less than half of their normal snowfall causing the rivers to suffer.

The lack of rain, a high pressure system, a full moon and sea currents are some of the factors believed to be contributing to the unusually low tides in Venice at present.

According to the Legambiente environmental group, the Po, Italy’s longest river which runs from the Alps in the north-west to the Adriatic has 61% less water than normal at this time of year, quotes The Guardian.

In July last year, Italy suffered its worst drought for 70 years and declared a state of emergency in the areas surrounding the Po, which accounts for roughly a third of the country’s agricultural production.

“We are in a water deficit situation that has been building up since the winter of 2020-2021,” climate expert Massimiliano Pasqui from Italian scientific research institute CNR was quoted as saying by daily Corriere della Sera.

“We need to recover 500mm in the north-western regions: we need 50 days of rain,” he said.

Lake Garda’s water levels have fallen to record lows making it difficult to reach the small island of San Biagio on the lake.

Western Europe has been hit by an anticyclone for the past 15 days resulting in mild temperatures more normally seen in late spring.

However, the latest weather forecasts indicate the arrival of much-needed precipitation and snow in the Alps in coming days.

According to NASA, the frequency of high-water events has gone from two per decade during the first half of the 20th Century to more than 40 per decade now, eroding the foundations of tightly packed buildings along the canals' edges.