The Italian Prime Minister has ruled that "Mose", the project to build underwater dams to slow the sinking of Venice, will go ahead, despite protests from environmentalists and the Mayor of Venice himself.

Silvio Berlusconi laid the foundation stone of Mose, Italian for Moses, in 2003 but the project has been interrupted by unremitting opposition from environmental campaigners and local residents. The nephew of Massimo Cacciari, the Mayor of Venice, was among protesters who forced work on the project to halt earlier this month.

But yesterday, after a meeting of the high-level committee that oversees the €4.3 billion (£2.9 billion) project, Mr Berlusconi said there was no more time for delays. "The last doubts have vanished. The Mose will be made," he said.

Mose will take the form of 78 flood barriers, 20m (65ft) wide and up to 28m (92ft) high, that will be fixed to the sea bed where Venice’s lagoon meets the Adriatic. When the water level reaches a certain point, compressed air will push the dams up and restrict the flow of water to the city.

Venice has always suffered seasonal flooding but in the twentieth century, the periodic swampings of the city known as the Serenissima have worsened considerably. In 1966, a high tide destroyed the historic homes of 5,000 Venetians, prompting scientists and engineers to propose methods of saving the city.

It was taken four decades of proposals - from raising the foundations of the city to banning cargo traffic from its port - for the Italian government to settle on a solution, but Mose, whose cost has doubled since it was first outlined, has always attracted controversy. The main objection to the dams is that they could leave Venice in a stagnant pond.

According to Richard Owen, correspondent for The Times in Italy, Mose has become as much a political as an engineering enterprise for Mr Berlusconi and his centre-right government:

"I think Berlusconi would say that all the environmental objections to the project are coming a bit late: there have been countless studies and this is what has been decided upon. But there is also a political side to Mose.

"Berlusconi is facing a stiff challenge in the upcoming election. It is not until May next year but campaigning has already started and he is facing a powerful campaign led by Romano Prodi, his long time rival. Prodi has promised the Greens, his coalition partner, that if he gets into power he will cancel Berlusconi's big infrastructure projects: the Venice dams and the Messina bridge to Sicily.

"I think Berlusconi hopes to leave behind the dams as a monument to his time in power and he is now in a period where he really has to push through these prestige projects."

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