2019
Melting Swiss glaciers to fuel conflicts over water - SWI swissinfo.chhttps://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/society/swiss-glacier-series--0-1-000m-_melting-swiss-glaciers-to-fuel-conflicts-over-water-/45371008A major problem is a foreseeable conflict of interest between the agricultural sector and the hydropower plants – in other words, between those who want to use water from a river at the bottom of a valley to irrigate the fields during dry spells and those who want to store the water in reservoirs in the mountains to produce electricity to cover the peak demand during the winter.
The fact that there will also be peak demands for electricity in summer – to cope with the growing demand for air conditioning – will probably help contain conflicts, according to Burlando.
But it is fundamental to have a fair and sustainable system of managing the storage of hydropower, for instance by building new water reservoirs in the mountains, he stresses.
“Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power could play an important role in this context,” says Burlando. “I’d like to refer to systems with pump turbine stations.”
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The melting of the Swiss glaciers will have a long-term impact not only on the mountain valleys and the lower-lying regions of the country. It will also be felt across Europe, says Galmos director Huss, who is also professor of glaciology at ETH Zurich.
He found that more than 25% of the water from the river Rhone which flowed into the Mediterranean Sea in August originated in alpine glaciers. ResearchersExternal link found similar but slightly lower percentage figures for the river Rhine, the Danube and the Po.
It is therefore foreseeable that the smaller amount of melting water will make these major European streams less suited for river vessels, concludes Huss.
The flow rate of the Rhone might be reduced by 50% by the end of this century as a result of less melting water and snow