Let’s return to the subject of the public water supply. Even with thousands of rain-collecting wells in the city, Venice needed more water. (Bear in mind that in the 1600’s Venice had some 200,000 inhabitants). And they were thirsty, needed to wash their clothes, needed to dye their wool and silk, and so on.
I do not know how many artesian wells have ever been drilled here, so please do not ask me. But they were precious, obviously, especially when there was a drought. Or when bombs began to fall in the 20th century, threatening the aqueduct.
Most of the fountains that we see today around the city running day and night are supplied by the city aqueduct. My next post will reveal the dazzling engineering of the historic — pre-20th century — Venetian aqueduct, but at the moment I want to acknowledge the burbling municipal H2O that has revived countless tourists.
Many people have asked me the obvious question: All that water running all the time, isn’t it a tremendous waste? Veritas, the water company, says that it isn’t. I suppose they would. I haven’t found a contrasting opinion to that, but I have had to suspend more research because life is short.
The logical solution, as people occasionally suggest, is to install faucets so that only the water that’s needed at the moment comes pouring out. Simple? Of course not!
An Italian member of an online political forum, who goes by the name “gava,” wrote (translation by me): “My project to install faucets to eliminate waste of precious drinkable water from the fountains is not easy to realize.
“In Venice there are about 200 fountains which consume about 800 cubic meters of water a day (800,000 liters, or 211,337 US gallons). A considerable amount, there’s no doubt. But let’s think for a moment, the water comes directly from the spring at Scorze’, it has no costs for pumping or purification, they only add some chlorine.
“Furthermore, the installation of a switch would increase the bacterial load in the first stretch of pipe, and the controls made by ASL (the local health department) demonstrate this. Practically speaking, to install faucets would give a tiny economic advantage and many disadvantages, from the maintenance of the pushbuttons (of the faucet) which are subject to frequent breaks, to the presence of bacteria in the first tract of water. (I think he means where the water exits from the faucet, which when the faucet is closed would promote buildup of bacteria.)
“Over the past five years, I’ve seen a maximum of 30 functioning fountains in Venice (note: VeniceWiki has made a map but a quick check shows it is incomplete). Those that have been closed for years may have something more than simple bacteria in the pipes, up to real encrustation. In any case, I still think that the system of filtering and taps could be improved, I don’t want it to be an excuse for throwing water away.”
An unnamed ex-member of this forum replied: “I remember that some time back they started to install pushbuttons but the main problem was that they break really easily, and so a good number of fountains were put back to the old system.”
To complicate matters, Veritas is responsible only for the fountains in the public parks; the others are maintained by “other organs,” which I have not identified. But the fact that all the fountains aren’t managed by the same company means that of course there will be administrative and/or bureaucratic problems involved in any change.
So while we’re all waiting for simplicity and conservation to reign on earth, I suggest you drink the fountain water as much as you can. After all, it’s there for you.
Erla:
Once again (with my municipal water background) I thoroughly enjoyed your latest post re the artesian wells and fountains. Being from Southern CA (land of repeated droughts) I always questioned the fact that certain “drinking fountains” were just continually running in Venice (and other places in Europe) during our visits. But, I have since learned a lot about stagnant water and the possibility of a build up of bacteria in pipes where faucets are installed and there is not a constant ‘turnaround” of flowing water which can lead to the bacteria forming. It also an depend on where the chlorine is being injected in the process, but now I’m getting in to the way too technical side of providing clean, safe drinking water.
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Erla:
Once again (with my municipal water background) I thoroughly enjoyed your latest post re the artesian wells and fountains. Being from Southern CA (land of repeated droughts) I always questioned the fact that certain “drinking fountains” were just continually running in Venice (and other places in Europe) during our visits. But, I have since learned a lot about stagnant water and the possibility of a build up of bacteria in pipes where faucets are installed and there is not a constant ‘turnaround” of flowing water which can lead to the bacteria forming. It also an depend on where the chlorine is being injected in the process, but now I’m getting in to the way too technical side of providing clean, safe drinking water.
Thank you again for your posts.
Sandy
So it’s not just the water company not wanting to bother. Thanks for your perspective on this.
why can’t they dig deep wells again
They could, but why would they? Why don’t they leave more of them running, as they used to do until a few years ago? I don’t know. I wish they would.