Venice Residents Protest Following Cruise Ship Incident.
Residents in Venice have again taken to the streets in protest following the recent MSC Opera incident. On Sunday 2nd June, the 65,500-ton MSC Opera, a 54-meter high and 275-meter long liner, was approaching a passenger terminal on the Giudecca Canal when it hit the dock and a nearby ferry after a technical problem. Footage of the incident showed passengers who had been waiting at a wharf in San Basilio-Zattere fleeing for safety as the huge ship, its horns blaring, crashed into the much smaller, moored “River Countess,” which had 110 people on board. Several tourists were slightly injured in the accident at San Basilio-Zattere, port authorities said.
Last Saturday around 5,000 residents of the northern Italian city protested against the presence of cruise ships in the busy Giudecca Canal, following last weeks accident. Many of the demonstrators carried banners with slogans such as “Keep large boats out of the lagoon.” Critics say the waves the ships create are eroding the foundations of the historic lagoon city, which regularly floods, leaving iconic sites such as Saint Mark’s Square underwater.
The issue of cruise liners sailing Venice’s Giudecca Canal has long been a very divisive issue between the cruise companies, residents and environmentalists. Italy’s government had previously promised to deal with the cruise ship problem. In 2013, it banned ships weighing more than 96,000 tons from the Giudecca Canal. The ban was in part a response to the deadly 2012 Costa Concordia disaster, in which the 115,000-ton cruise ship hit a rock formation off the island of Giglio in Tuscany after its captain sailed too close to the shore. However, that law was later overturned by a regional court, which ruled that safety or environmental risks had not been proven. Two years ago, again, the government announced that larger ships would be diverted from the historic centre but again, the government failed to follow through on that promise.
In response to the latest incident, Italy’s Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said the government would come up with a “definitive solution” by the end of June. We’ll have to wait and see what this ‘definitive solution’ will be, and, given the outcome of previous ‘definitive solutions’, I would be surprised to see anything concrete in place by the end of June.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Should ships be banned completely from entering Venice or do you think some sort of compromise can be reached?
Bye for now.
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Cruise ships should be banned fromVenice it is ridiculous such huge ships should be allowed to compromise the beautiful ancient city- the passengers could very easily enter the city by water taxi which is a great experience anyway.