The border between Switzerland and Italy high in the snowy Alps has changed as a result of a glacier melting.
The borderline follows a drainage divide, which is where meltwater from a mountain divides into two streams that flow either in the direction of one country or the other. Due to the retreat of the Theodul Glacier, the Rifugio Guide del Cervino, a guest shelter near the 3,480-meter (11,417-foot) Testa Grigia Mountain, has been sliding towards the watershed and is now gently sweeping underneath the building.
The area, which is heavily dependent on tourism, is located at the summit of one of the largest ski resorts in the world, and the issue has come to light as a result of a sizable new development that includes a cable car station being built just a few meters. A deal was reached in Florence in November 2021, but it won’t be made public until the Swiss government gives its approval, which won’t happen until 2023. Alain Wicht, the chief border official at Switzerland’s national mapping organization Swisstopo, told AFP that they agreed to share the difference.
He is responsible for maintaining the 7,000 boundary markers along the 1,935-kilometer border between landlocked Switzerland and Austria, France, Germany, Italy, and Liechtenstein. Wicht was there during the talks, where both sides gave ground in an effort to reach an agreement. Even if neither side prevailed, he said, at least nobody lost. The border between Italy and Switzerland follows the watershed line where Alpine glaciers are present. But between 1973 and 2010, the Theodul Glacier lost approximately a fourth of its size.
This made the drainage split different and required the two neighbors to redraw their border over a 100-meter section of rock that was exposed to the ice. According to Wicht, these changes were common and were resolved without the involvement of politicians by comparing surveyor readings from the bordering nations. We are fighting over land that has little value, he remarked. But he went on to say that this was the only site where we suddenly had a building involved, adding that this gave the land ‘economic value.’
The complicated international situation prevented his Italian peers from making a statement. According to Jean-Philippe Amstein, a former head of Swisstopo, such disagreements are often settled by trading land portions with comparable value and surface area. He added that in this instance, Switzerland is not interested in gaining a piece of the glacier, and the Italians are unable to make up for the loss of Swiss surface area.
As a result of the protracted negotiations, neither side of the border has been able to provide a building permit, which has delayed the reconstruction of the asylum. As a result, the development won’t be completed in time for the late 2023 launch of a new cable car up the Italian side of the Klein Matterhorn peak. Only from the Swiss ski resort of Zermatt are the slopes accessible.
- Misleading Video Alters Prime Minister Shehbaz’s Speech Targeting Political Rival, Not His Party - 21/04/2024
- ATC Grants Three-Day Remand for Suspects in Ichhra Bazaar Harassment Case - 19/03/2024
- Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh Lead World in Severe Smog Crisis, Exceeding WHO Guidelines - 19/03/2024
