[What follows is a brief news story about Minster Toninelli’s announcement about the Grandi Navi, followed by a story covering No Grandi Navi’s response – Ed.]
A third of the Grandi Navi away from Venice within a year
Toninelli speaks: three docks spread out for passages of the skyscrapers of the seas: one at Marghera, one at Fusina, the third to be identified
7 August 2019
VENICE. Three docks, spread out, two already named as Fusina and Marghera, and the third to be decided. By 2020 a third of the grandi navi will be directed to one of these, and therefore will not traverse the canale della Guidecca. Minister Toninelli, heard in the Commissione Trasporti della Camera, spelled out his decisions regarding the future of the grandi navi at Venice. He did not provide any definite time frame, however he reiterated his desire to redirect twenty grandi navi this year, and a third of the total within a year: in this sense, the cruise ship companies would also be in agreement.
For the future the plans for Marghera are definitively blocked: “According to a VTP study, it would take 6 to 10 years for the excavations”. No to the Comitatone, but yes to a public survey on the web, as had been expected. From the minister a jab at Brugnaro: “It’s not me who doesn’t want to talk with him, but exactly the opposite”. Meanwhile, the protocol for the sludge was released, an important step for the excavations.
“Just another mockery – the status quo will remain”
9 August 2019
Another mockery. This is the judgement of the No Grandi Navi movement, which in September will be organizing the first Climate Camp during the Cinema Festival. It will be an opportunity to repeat that “the navi should stay outside the lagoon”. “We have read minister Toninelli’s report and it appears to us that he continues to take people for fools, speaking about projects as though he was at the bar”, explained activist Stefano Micheletto. “The grandi navi are incompatible with the lagoon and also with the Planet, given the pollution that they produce”. According to the movement Toninelli “took a shot”, but mayor Brugnaro would also like to take the navi to Marghera. “It’s not that they shouldn’t pass in front of San Marco, they shouldn’t pass through the lagoon at all” continues Micheletto, “The idea of spread out docks proposed by the minister doesn’t work, not only because the docks are small and at maximum can be used for navi up to 50 thousand tons, but also because it will interfere with the commercial ship, without mentioning that these will not resolve the real problem. It’s just another proposal to maintain the status quo”. The movement stressed that not only is the great size of the navi “incompatible with the lagoon” but also “the quantity of Co2 emissions”. “Europe”, he concludes, “is about to issue a directive for the measurement of Co2 emissions, but this has not yet begun, and then it will require time to make adjustments, but it is something to keep an eye on. For this reason we say that the grandi navi are not compatible with the lagoon”.
By V.M.
Source for both articles: La Nuova Venezia
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