The Italian government has decided to dig a new deep canal through the Venetian lagoon to give the next generation of cruise ships, even bigger then the current ones, a passage to Venice.

Please consider signing the online petition against this next assault on Venice.

This decision

• was taken in Rome without any kind of democratic representation of the residents of Venice as the city doesn’t currently have an elected mayor,
• was taken during the summer holidays, in an attempt to sneak it through unnoticed,
• will lead to the final destruction of the southern Venetian lagoon, already severely damaged by the Canale dei Petroli, dug in the 1960s,
• will have a massive impact on the hydrology of Venice itself, with unpredictable consequences,
• will perpetuate the industrial tourism offered by the cruise industry, which bring little if any money to the city of Venice .

The petition text translated by myself:

The realisation of the new Contorta canal will bring the Canal dei petroli into the heart of the city of Venice, reducing its natural defences and subjecting it to the combined pressure of masses of water from both the Lido and the Malamocco openings, with consequences which could be irreversible. We’re against the dredging of new Cortorto canal because we consider it damaging to the city of Venice and to its lagoon. We therefore ask that the project be retracted immediately and that we return to work on all the suggested projects available.

Last but not least, we express the conviction that it should be the city of Venice that decide on a question which regards it so directly, and that its not treated as an almost undesired spectator