A spectacular transformation of the water in part of Venice’s famous Grand Canal, which turned fluorescent green, was caused by the presence of fluorescein, a non-toxic substance normally used to test sewage, Italian authorities announced on Monday. from AFP and Agerpres.

Gondoliers on the green water of VenicePhoto: Cobra Team / BACKGRID / Backgrid UK / Profimedia

Analyzes revealed “the presence of fluorescein in the samples taken,” according to a press release from the Regional Environmental Protection Agency of Venice (Arpav).

The results of the laboratory “did not demonstrate the presence of toxic elements in the analyzed samples”, added the Italian agency, without specifying the origin of this substance in the Grand Canal.

Fluorescein is often used to trace the route of unknown sewer lines or to detect inversions in sewer and stormwater lines.

A change in the color of the water in the Grand Canal was reported by several residents of Venice, and it raised many questions.

Italy suspected that environmentalists were responsible for turning the water in Venice’s famous canal green

According to local daily La Nuova Venezia, Italian police were trying to find out whether certain climate activists could have been responsible for the phenomenon in the context in which it took place after a series of recent episodes in Italy in which environmental groups painted over monuments, including including using charcoal to blacken the waters of the Trevi Fountain in Rome in protest against fossil fuels.

However, unlike in previous cases, no activist group came forward to claim responsibility for what happened in Venice.

Last week, German police raided the headquarters and homes of members of the environmental NGO Last Generation, known for organizing protests at famous museums to vandalize famous works of art or block traffic in Berlin. The Munich prosecutor’s office initiated searches, a number of suspects are accused of creating and supporting a criminal organization.

The situation that was reported in Venice the other day was not the first incident when the water in the Grand Canal turned green.

In 1968, Argentinian artist Nicolas García Uriburi changed the color of the water in Venice’s main canal with fluorescent dye during the 34th Venice Biennale as part of an environmental awareness campaign.