a plan of the Italian government to save Venice from sinking will prove to be futile. This was stated by Albert J Ammerman, an American environmental archaeologist and an expert about Venetian things. The plan drawn up long ago is on the verge of being finalised by the government. It is estimated to cost $two billion to $4 billion. The plan stipulates that 79 mobile floodgates will be build on the entrance of every water inlet of the city. On normal days, the gates will remain submerged in the Adriatic Sea. But in case of a storm being forecast, compressed air would be pumped into the hollow inner cavities of the gates, forcing them to rise upward and block the incoming water.
According to Ammerman, floodgates could cause wide ecological damage. He said that the idea was based on 'flawed' estimates. The floodgates, he reasoned, would have to close 94 to 150 times each year during high tides, destroying the lagoon's delicate ecological balance and cutting it off from the sea and its cleansing flows.
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