The waters of a stretch of the famous Venetian canal suddenly changed color on Sunday. After taking samples, local authorities identified a non-toxic substance.
Fluorescein. This is the name of the substance that suddenly colored the waters of Venice’s Grand Canal fluorescent green on Sunday. Intrigued by this sudden change in color, residents had warned the local authorities, who ordered samples to be taken. These tests revealed the presence of this non-toxic substance, reports the Giornal.
The results of the samples “did not demonstrate the presence of toxic elements in the samples analyzed”, confirms the Regional Agency for Prevention and Environmental Protection of Veneto (Arpav) in its press release published Monday.
Fluorescein is a substance generally used in the context of tests on wastewater networks, in order to locate the path of poorly known networks or to identify inversions between wastewater and rainwater networks.
The track of a privileged ecological action
On the other hand, the local authorities did not specify the origin of the sudden presence of fluorescein in the water. According to the local newspaper La Nuova Veneziathe police always favor the track of an action initiated by environmental activists, but no one has claimed the facts.
This unusual episode recalls that of 1968, when the Argentinian artist Nicolas Garcia Uriburu had dyed the waters of the Grand Canal a similar color, on the occasion of the 34th Venice Biennale, to raise awareness of ecology.
He also mentions more recent environmental actions: on May 21, activists dyed the waters of the Trevi Fountain in Rome black to protest against fossil fuel subsidies.
Source: BFM TV
