The Stream, October 30, 2024: In Swiss Alps, Concerns over Landslides and Floods Push Residents From Generational Homes

A glacial valley near Wengen, in the Swiss Alps. Photo © J. Carl Ganter/Circle of Blue

YOUR GLOBAL RUNDOWN

Following a 13-month drought and blisteringly high temperatures this summer, chestnut production in Greece has dropped nearly 90 percent in the worst-hit regions.
Some people living in villages in the Swiss Alps are turning into climate refugees, as melting permafrost and heavy rains are making landslides and floods more likely.
More than one-third of the world’s tree species are at risk of extinction, according to the largest-ever global assessment from the IUCN.
Researchers in Iceland are searching for a potentially deadly link between glacial melt and volcanic activity.

In England, several water firms were revealed to have “passed” thousands of self-administered pollution tests by using a loophole in Environment Agency rules.

“Water companies cannot be allowed to mark their own homework. Monthly manual testing of treated sewage must be replaced by continuous automated sampling. Default assumption of permit compliance in the face of failed sampling is totally unacceptable.” — Peter Hammond, from the campaign group Windrush Against Sewage Pollution.

Thousands of monthly, self-monitored tests for effluent outflow at several sewage and water treatment facilities across England have earned passing grades — yet data shows that pollutant flows were shut off altogether on days these tests took place, the Observer reports.

These direct manipulations were deemed compliant by the Environment Agency’s rules for operating permits, a “no flow” loophole that officials say will be closed by early 2025. Last week, an independent commission into the water sector was launched, and “is expected to be the largest review of the industry since privatization.”

The loophole was introduced in 2009. In 2019, one water firm, Southern Water, was discovered to have reported 124 “no flows” in 2017 and was ordered to pay roughly $163 million in rebates. From 2021 to 2023, across 120,000 samples taken at sewage facilities across England, some 5,000 were “no flows.”

— Christian Thorsberg, Interim Stream Editor

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The Lead

In Switzerland’s Guttannen municipality, melting alpine permafrost — a direct result of climate change — is causing dangerous rockslides and landslides, forcing some residents permanently from their otherwise picturesque homes, DW reports. The falling debris has deadly potential, and has made the Aare River, whose water level is now higher than usual, more likely to flood amidst erratic rainfall or additional slides.

Village officials are keeping a careful eye on the region’s freezing level. If it rises to roughly 13,000 feet in altitude for several weeks in the summer, dangerous melting occurs. This summer, extreme heat and heavy downpours led to floods and landslides that swept through key roads and several villages across the country, many of which depend on tourism for a bulk of their economic vitality.

In Brienz, where floodwaters surpassed a 15-meter safety barrier in August and passed through the village, authorities are having tough conversations with residents about their new climate realities and long-term safety along the riverbed. Other villages have already seen exoduses of climate refugees.

This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers

Percent by which this year’s chestnut harvest is expected to drop in at least one village in central Greece, where high temperatures and prolonged drought have stopped the nuts from ripening, Reuters reports. Following devastating floods in the region in September 2023, the area has been hit with a 13-month dry spell. Greece’s central bank predicts crop and fruit prices to increase over the coming years, a direct result of climate change and its impact on food production.

Percent of the world’s tree species that are at risk of extinction, according to the first Global Tree Assessment, published by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In the largest such report ever made, more than a third of the 47,282 species assessed were added to the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species. Extreme heat, drought — which brings an increase in pests and disease — and more powerful, frequent storms are all playing a role in the trajectory of most endangered trees.

On the Radar

Scientists in Iceland are concerned that continued glacial melt, a result of global temperature rise, will contribute to greater activity of the Askja volcano, “one of the country’s most active and dangerous,” Reuters reports. The volcano has been “in a state of unrest” since 2021, and the continued melting of glaciers is likely to disrupt the landscape’s chemistry — altering the pH of volcanic lakes and craters, a signal of magmatic activity, and easing pressure on the previously “tamped down” formations. Researchers hope that their work in Iceland will have global impacts, as hundreds of volcanoes worldwide currently sit under melting ice.

More Water News

Tropical Storm Trami: The death toll has risen to 110 people as of this weekend in the Philippines, as floods and landslides cleared villages and forced thousands of evacuations, France24 reports.

Tana River: The health of the Tana River, which supplies water for Nairobi’s five million people, is benefitting from riparian reforestation and upstream, grassroots conservation efforts, Mongabay reports.

Christian Thorsberg

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer from Chicago. He is passionate about climate and cultural phenomena that often appear slow or invisible, and he examines these themes in his journalism, poetry, and fiction.