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Venice tests flood barrier to protect city from high tide

Venice tests flood defence system

78 mobile barriers rose in unison

for the first time since being designed in 1984

The multi-billion-euro project is called MOSE

inspired by the biblical character Moses

who parted the red sea

(SOUNDBITE) (Italian) ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER, GIUSEPPE CONTE, SAYING:

"Today with this test we will see all the 78 flood barriers rising simultaneously, closing all the harbor entrances. This is a massive project that has been waiting for years to be completed, a barrier that extends for 1.6 kilometers. It is a project that was born from many controversies and designed to protect Venice from high water, a concrete objective, not an imaginary one, however visionary it may have seemed when it was designed."

Testing the project has been a priority

since Venice was hit with 3-foot-deep floods

Date: November 2019

The new system hopes to protect the city

from tides of up to 9ft

But experts worry it will be overwhelmed

by predicted projections of rising sea levels