Small canals in Venice dry up amid low tides

VENICE, Italy — Some of Venice’s smaller canals have practically dried up due a prolonged spell of low tides, frustrating boat crews and bewildering tourists in Italy.

The prolonged stretch of ebb tides is linked to a lingering high-pressure weather system over much of Italy, experts say.

Since the canals essentially serve as streets in carless Venice, the phenomenon has added to the challenges of everyday life in the lagoon city. Ambulance boats in some cases have had to tie up farther from their destination, forcing medical crews to sometimes hand-carry stretchers over long distances as their vessels can’t progress up canals reduced to a trickle of water and muck.

For tourists, it meant gondolas couldn’t navigate some secondary waterways that run under Venice’s many picturesque bridges.

In midwinter, high atmospheric pressure combined with the lunar cycle produces the ultra-low water levels during ebb tide, noted Jane Da Mosto, an environmental scientist and sustainable development analyst with We Are Here Venice, an environmental advocacy group.

She added that the phenomenon highlights the lack of attention to the overdue need for cleaning Venice’s inner canal network.

Navigation continued on the wider, main waterways, including the Grand and Giudecca canals.

Separately, the same high pressure system compounded by scarce Alpine snowmelt has been a factor for the shriveling of lakes and rivers in northern Italy in recent weeks. This month, an isthmus linking the shores of Lake Garda to a small island has reemerged, delighting visitors who were able to, in effect, walk partway across the middle of the lake.