Glacier Disbursed, Italy And Switzerland Agree To Reorganize Borders In The Alps

Puncak Matterhorn. (Wikimedia Commons/Gianluca Miscione)

JAKARTA - Italy and Switzerland have agreed to rearrange the border areas of the two countries due to the melting of the glacier, which was previously a marker of the border.

The two countries agreed to change the boundary to the iconic Puncak Matterhorn, one of the highest peaks in the Alps, which faces Zermatt, the goal of popular skiing.

Although national boundaries are often considered fixed, most Swiss-Italy border areas are limited by glaciers and snowfields.

"With the melting of the glacier, these natural elements evolve and redefine national boundaries," the Swiss Government said in a statement, quoted by CNN Oct. 1.

The regional boundary change was approved in 2023 and the Swiss Government officially approved the adjustment on Friday two weeks ago.

The approval process is ongoing in Italy. As soon as both parties sign, the agreement will be published and details of the new regional boundaries will be published, according to the Swiss Government.

It is known, Europe is the continent with the fastest warming in the world and its impact on the glaciers there is very real.

In Switzerland, glaciers are melting at an alarming pace. The country's Glacier lost 4 percent of its volume last year, the second-largest after a record 6 percent loss in 2022.

"This downward trend shows no signs of ending," said Matthias Huss, a glaciologist at Swiss University ETH Zörich and director of GLAMOS, Switzerland's glacier monitoring network.

"By 2024, glaciers will continue to lose ice at high speed despite a lot of snow in winter which is expected to bring some relief," he told CNN.

"Some glaciers are completely destroyed, small glaciers are disappearing," he added.

The shrinking Glacier led to a terrible discovery. Last year, the body of a mountain climber who had been missing 37 years earlier while climbing near Matterhorn was rediscovered.

As glaciers shrink, glaciers also lose their vital role in providing fresh water, which can exacerbate water shortages during heat waves.

The shift in the country's boundaries "is one of the small side effects" of the glacier disbursement, said Huss. However, when people can see it "directly affects our world map," he added, it makes the big change from the heated world more visible.