Campaign For A Living Venice

By decree, the management of the project will fall to the Lagoon Authority. Authority President Rossetto: “An important turning point, thanks to the ministry”

By Alberto Vitucci

March 14, 2026

MOSE has become part of the “unavailable state property, handed over for government use to the Lagoon Authority.” A decree approved by the government (number 32 of March 11) establishes that the major project is now state property.

Furthermore, it must be managed by the Lagoon Authority. This is no small step. Because in this way, the State commits to guaranteeing future funding for the maintenance of the system, whose work is nearing its end, with completion and testing scheduled for June. It also establishes that jurisdiction over the project and its operation rests with the Lagoon Authority, and not with other entities such as the Municipality, the Region, or the Port Authority.

“Our decisions will always be coordinated, the result of open discussions with everyone,” says President Roberto Rossetto, who is pleased. He thanked the government “for establishing this cornerstone in the process initiated on February 12 with the decree of full operation. I also thank Minister of Infrastructure Matteo Salvini, who initiated the transfer of personnel from the Public Works Department to the Lagoon Authority.”

What Does the Transfer to the State Entail?

This is a turning point, Rossetto confirms, because now “the state budget will always include an item for funding MOSE and its maintenance.”

This remains a critical point, given the delays in checking and cleaning the floodgates, which have been underwater for 13 years. Within the year, six more are expected to be removed from the water by MOSE contractors. This, combined with those already cleaned by Fincantieri, will bring the total to 10-12 of the 78 floodgates on the seabed. The Authority’s plans now include a tender for future maintenance (projected to cost at least €100 million per year), focusing on new technologies. But the situation is still complicated, especially given the overwork MOSE was subjected to in the first two months of this year. It was raised 30 times, every other day, and sometimes even twice. In just two months, it operated twenty times more than the project had predicted it would in an entire year.

Climate Change

Climate change is already here. And the average sea level recorded in February already matches the predictions made for 15 years from now, in 2040. By the end of the century, the sea will rise by about one meter. Thus, the emergency will become a daily occurrence. Then, even MOSE won’t be enough, as it can’t be closed every day due to costs, wear and tear on materials, and the damage this would cause to the lagoon and port activity. It will also be necessary to focus on alternative interventions, some of which were proposed by independent scientists twenty years ago. “We don’t have any recipes or solutions”, says Rossetto. “We’re consulting with stakeholders and experts. Now it’s up to the scientists to provide us with solutions, and we’ll commit to implementing them.”

There’s talk of raising city itself, working on the islands to isolate parts of the city from the water, and even interventions in the lagoon to limit flow and water levels. According to studies initiated by the City Council in the early 2000s, “alternative” interventions can reduce high water levels by up to 20 centimeters. This would mean that the MOSE system would no longer be needed for medium-high water levels, which would remain available for exceptional tides.

Source: La Nuova di Venezia e Mestre