Venice’s ‘Baby MOSE’ dam completed
It is well-known that the biggest current infrastructure project in Italy is the ‘MOSE’ mobile dam system under construction to protect Venice from high flooding. Yet it is less well-known that a smaller dam has also been built to protect Chioggia, in the south of the Venetian lagoon. This dam, called ‘Baby MOSE’, was reported as completed on 17 July 2012 in the Venetian newspaper La Nuova Venezia:
Conclusi i lavori, Baby Mose pronto per l’inaugurazione
Baby MOSE is a very different project from the MOSE dams being built at the three inlets of the Venetian lagoon. Baby MOSE dam will protect the historical centre of Chioggia from floods up to 130 cm. The dam is a retractable circular segment. It is situated in the Vena canal near Vigo bridge and can be seen in the picture below:
The inauguration of Baby MOSE will be a chance to celebrate another important step in protecting Venice against nature’s challenges. Let’s hope this will be replicated on a grander scale when Venice’s huge MOSE dams are completed, predicted for the end of 2014 and explained in more detail in my book Venice in Environmental Peril? Myth and Reality (2012). According to the CVN consortium building the MOSE system, the first dams are scheduled to be installed at the start of 2013. A short film of the installation process can be viewed using the link below:
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