Freshwater issues in the European Alps

Only about 10% of all Alpine rivers are (at least partly) in natural or near-natural conditions.

Throughout the Alpine valleys, rivers and streams have been dammed, straightened and regulated. Riverbank areas have been converted to agricultural land or to urban areas.

With them gone is also their natural flood regulation function. The diverting of streams and the construction of large storage reservoirs destroys life space.

Hydroelectric power plants constitute one of the most serious threats to river systems interrupting migration passageways and causing frequent flooding that reduce benthos biomass.

As if all this were not bad enough, streams are also polluted by agriculture, industry and household waste, not to mention acid rain.

The introduction of foreign fish species into many Alpine water bodies disturbs the highly specialized and endemic invertebrate fauna and the autochthonous fish population.

The Alps are the most important water reservoir in Europe and that function exposes them to strong interests from the outside.

Water-usage is the part of the Alpine economy that is most strongly controlled by extra-Alpine forces.

All cities on the Alps borders and many even further away rely on the mountain range water for their drinking needs and hydroelectricity supply, whose control is mostly situated outside the Alps.