Rhine Valley gets better protection against flooding
Published: Thursday, Dec 5th 2024, 12:30
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Parliament wants to improve flood protection on the section of the Rhine along the border with Austria. After the National Council, the Council of States also voted in favor of a corresponding bill on Thursday.
The large chamber had to decide on three decrees: the new Federal Act on the Improvement of Flood Protection on the Rhine from the Mouth of the Ill River to Lake Constance (Alpine Rhine Act), the associated commitment credit and the federal decree on the new, fourth state treaty on flood protection on the Alpine Rhine. It adopted all of these without any countermotions or votes against.
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 Federal Council wrote in May that the increase in discharge could also cope with very large floods, which occur on average every 300 years. 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.
The Council of States only made minor adjustments to the new Alpine Rhine Act compared to the National Council. In particular, it wants to ensure that future bedload removal is considered to be ordinary watercourse maintenance. The National Council must now deal with this difference.
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