Regula Imhof
Vice-Secretary General of the Alpine Convention
The 2nd Report on the State of the Alps is now available. For the first time, it records all specific and legal aspects of water in the Alps.
The Report gives detailed and regionally varying information, on the state of water resources as well as on its quality and quantity. It also deals with social and economic aspects of water use, the role played by natural hazards, and the consequences of climate change on water regime. Furthermore, it offers an overview of relevant regulations and initiatives for the future.
According to the report, the most important challenges are implementing an integrated management of natural hazards, drawing up a plan for the exploitation of river basins, reducing water nuisances, and using water power in a sustainable manner. There are today over 550 hydro-electric plants in the Alps, each of them with a power output greater than 10 MW, to which thousands of small plants can be added. Increasing water demand and climate changes constitute additional challenges for water management.
Regional differences and uneven resources are another issue in terms of Alpine waters management. The Alpine overall picture according to which there would be « too much » water because of the high level of precipitations is contradicted already today by the fact that in some southern parts of the Alps, water is scarce.
Not only do we demonstrate that the water regime in the Alps has a decisive influence on the rest of Europe, we also show that this dependence has been increasing with climate change. The Report was adopted by the Ministers during the Xth Alpine Conference in Evian (France) on 12th March 2009.
In order to deal continually with the theme of water in the Alps, the Alpine Convention set up a platform on “Water management in the Alpine space”. With the Report on the State of the Alps on water in the Alps, the objective is yet to be reached. We need to guarantee that the challenges mentioned in the Report are pursued and that the objectives fixed by the Alpine Convention in terms of using Alpine water resources are actually reached.
The main subject will be hydro electricity production as necessary developments of renewable energies also contribute to the ever-increasing pressure when exploiting Alpine water resources. Defining guidelines for a balanced exploitation of water resources for hydro-power generation could play a key role in supporting sustainable development in the Alps.
The platform will be co-presided by Austria and Switzerland and its members will be representants of the Parties of the Alpine Convention, as well as interested parties from the world of science, economy or belonging to NGOs.