Parliament improves protection against flooding in the Rhine Valley
Published: Tuesday, Dec 10th 2024, 09:40
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Flood protection in the St. Gallen Rhine Valley is being improved. On Tuesday, the National Council resolved the final differences with the small chamber in the new Alpine Rhine Act. The business is now ready for the final vote.
The Council of States had made minor adjustments compared to the National Council. In particular, it had wanted to ensure that future bedload removal would be considered ordinary watercourse maintenance. This means that no further permits would have to be obtained under water or fisheries law.
For soil improvement measures outside the project perimeter that are implemented with suitable excavated and alluvial material from the construction and maintenance of the flood protection project, no compensatory measures should have to be taken. This is what the Council of States wanted.
The National Council now had to deal with these differences. Its preliminary committee unanimously voted in favor of following the Council of States. The upper chamber tacitly followed suit on Tuesday.
The flood protection project concerns the 26-kilometre-long border section. This stretches from the mouth of the River Ill below Feldkirch (A) to Lake Constance.
Specifically, the plan is to increase the discharge capacity of the Alpine Rhine from the current 3100 to 4300 cubic meters of water per second and to renovate the ageing flood dams. According to the Federal Council, implementation of the project is expected to last until 2052, with the aim of protecting the lower Rhine valley from flooding and enhancing it as a living and economic area.
While the current protective structures protect against 100-year floods, the increase in discharge would also make it possible to cope with very large floods, which occur on average every 300 years, the Federal Council wrote on the proposal. According to federal calculations, damage amounting to over 13 billion Swiss francs could be avoided in this way.
The costs on the Swiss side amount to a good one billion Swiss francs, spread over a period of 27 years. 80 percent will be borne by the federal government and 20 percent by the canton of St. Gallen.
©Keystone/SDA
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