Swiss Drought, Surface Water Drops to Record Low

Illustration of a river in Switzerland. Drought has caused the water levels in a number of rivers and lakes to drop to the lowest levels in monitoring records. Illustration photo: Pexels.

JAKARTA - The drought that hit Switzerland has pushed the water surface to a record low in a number of areas. About a fifth of the monitoring stations even recorded the lowest level for the same period.

Anadolu Agency quoted Friday, August 14, saying the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment or FOEN recorded the lowest record at 11 monitoring stations. The data was reported by Swiss Info, citing the Keystone-SDA news agency.

FOEN said between April 1 and July 31, about a fifth of monitoring stations recorded the lowest water levels ever recorded for the period.

The most striking condition is seen in a number of water streams in the north of the Alps. According to FOEN, the lowest level usually only occurs once every two to 10 years.

In some locations, similar conditions have even occurred only once in 30 to 100 years or more rarely.

The impact of drought is also visible in a number of lakes. The water surface has dropped very low due to heat waves and drought.

The affected lakes include Constance, Walen, Zurich, Zug, and Maggiore.

However, FOEN said Switzerland still has abundant water resources. The agency warned that climate change will change water availability in the future.