Five cantons celebrate 150 years of Jura water correction
The Swiss Confederation and five cantons commemorated the first Jura water correction with a ceremony in Hagneck on September 14. It is 150 years since the Federal Assembly allocated five million Swiss francs for this historic hydraulic engineering project.
The Jura water correction was necessary because the plains along the Jura lakes and the Aare were largely marshland until 150 years ago. Villages and towns were flooded again and again. Poverty, hunger and swamp disease were part of everyday life. The first Jura water correction improved the living conditions of the population, as was emphasized at the ceremony.
The Aare was diverted into Lake Biel and the Nidau-Büren Canal was built. A network of inland canals drained the marshes. The second Jura water correction about 100 years later succeeded in taming the water masses.
Since then, the life of the population in this region has improved considerably. 150 years ago, swamp floods and resulting crises were reasons for many Swiss to emigrate to other continents.
Pioneering
Marc Chardonnens, Director of the Federal Office for the Environment, underlined the foresight of the Confederation's first subsidy project. The pioneering achievement at that time was the beginning of a successful cooperation between the Confederation, cantons and municipalities, Chardonnens said according to the text of the speech.
The Bernese government councilor Barbara Egger appreciated the political will of the ancestors. Today, she said, they wanted not only to change a landscape and protect the population, but also to produce electricity and protect nature at the same time.
In the view of Fribourg State Councilor Jean-François Steiert, flood protection must be strengthened in order to better protect agriculture and infrastructure from flooding. Laurent Favre, President of the Neuchâtel State Council, stated that flood protection remains a permanent task of the cantons.
New challenges
The current work of the Jura water correction has at times reached its limits, noted Roland Fürst, member of the Solothurn government. That is why his canton has embarked on a comprehensive flood protection and revitalization project between Olten and Aarau.
For State Councillor Jacqueline de Quattro from the canton of Vaud, today it is also a matter of restoring the natural dynamics of the waters. In this context, she referred to the current third Rhone correction. (Source: sda)
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