Water shortage: Switzerland’s blue gold is under pressureAround the world, conflicts are breaking out over water shortages. This precious reso...

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Water shortage: Switzerland’s blue gold is under pressureAround the world, conflicts are breaking out over water shortages. This precious reso...
Water shortage: Switzerland’s blue gold is under pressure
Around the world, conflicts are breaking out over water shortages. This precious resource has always flowed abundantly in Switzerland. Now, frequent droughts and high demand are increasing tensions and calls for regulation.

This content was published on June 12, 2023
June 12, 2023
7 minutes
Sara Ibrahim
Other languages: 8
Lakes, rivers, and streams: Switzerland has no shortage of water. It is no coincidence that the Alpine country is sometimes referred to as “Europe's water tower”. It is home to 6% of the continent's freshwater reserves. Switzerland is also rich in groundwater. Some 150 billion cubic metres of it flow through the country’s rocks and sediments, compared with 100 billion cubic metres in FranceExternal link and less than 49 billion cubic metres in GermanyExternal link.

The story of water in Switzerland would end here were it not for the fact that this resource is now under pressure. Contributing factors include long periods of drought due to climate change, urbanisation and water pollution. In the future, certain parts of this small country will be especially affected.

How Europe’s water tower is handling scarcity
Household consumption down, but not thanks to users
Since the 1990s, water use has decreased from 400 litres to 300External link per person per day as water infrastructure and household technologies have become more efficient. But the Swiss population uses among the most amount of water per person per day in Europe. Almost half of the consumption, 142 litres, is due to household activities. Toilet flushing, showers and baths are responsible for more than half of water use.

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Lack of data on industrial and agricultural consumption
While we know how much water is being consumed by households in Switzerland, it’s a different story when it comes to industry or agriculture.

Half of the water used by industry and agriculture is extracted privately and is not tracked. For example, the water that farmers pump from rivers, lakes or aquifers is in most cases not metered. That’s because there has always been so much water in Switzerland that calculating total consumption has never been a priority. Most Swiss cantons, which are responsible for water management, have not set up a system to collect this data. Canton Basel Country is one of the few regions to have imposed stricter water monitoring because of intense consumption by its chemical industries.

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With water starting to run out during summer droughts, the lack of data is becoming a problem. "If we don't know how much water we really consume, how do we change our behaviour in response to climate change?" says Bettina Schaefli, head of the hydrology unit at the University of Bern.

Attached link

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/sci-tech/water-shortage--switzerland-s-blue-gold-is-under-pressure/48578804

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