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Scuba divers clean up canals after high tides in Venice

Sunday, 01 December 2019 5:54 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 01 December 2019 6:00 PM ]

A group of scuba divers from Venice's gondolier association collect waste from the lagoon city's canals, as part of a cleanup operation, in Venice, Italy, on December 1, 2019. (Photo by Reuters)

A group of scuba divers came together to clean up the canals in Venice on Sunday, December 1, after record high waters hit the lagoon city in the past weeks.

The crew retrieved large amounts of tires during the cleanup operation. "We also collected some gas cylinders that are used by bars, they were probably lost during transport and we recovered them," scuba diver Alessandro Zuffi said.

The last recorded high water occurred on Sunday, November 24, after weeks of flooding brought the city virtually to its knees.

The city, beloved around the world for its canals, historic architecture, and art, was hit by a high tide at 187 cm on November 12. That was just short of the record 194 cm set in 1966 and caused the city's worst flooding in 50 years.

In normal conditions, tides of 80-90 cm are generally seen as high but manageable. With four tides above 140 cm since November 11, this is the worst month for high tides in Venice since 1872, when official statistics were first produced. Also a newsstand was found underwater by fire brigade scuba divers. It had sunk during last month's bad weather.

(Source: Reuters)

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