Public Evening (in German)

“We won’t understand the value of water as long as the well has not dried up”. With this quote, Mayor Martha Bächler opens the public evening event of the Academia Engelberg. Dominik Galliker, Vice President of the Academia Engelberg Foundation welcomes the large number of guests to the controversial debate on the issue: “Who owns the water?” Barbara Bleisch and Stefan Fischer demonstrated in their joint introduction that the global problem has more to do with contamination and improvement of sanitary conditions than with fundamental water shortage: 1.1 billion people around the world do not have access to clean water and 2.2 million people die of unclean water per year. Roughly 200 people from Central Switzerland and conference participants joined the public evening event and discussed the issue of who owns the water with four guests under the direction of moderator Ellinor von Kauffungen. During the controversial debate, Prof. Peter Rieder, ETH Zurich, called for an extension of technical environmental protection. National Councillor Kathy Riklin will address distribution and pollution problems at a political level. When asked about snow making machines, Freddy Miller, Engelberg Titlis Tourismus AG, defends their use: “Engelberg generates 90 percent of its revenues from tourism, out of which 60 percent is in winter time. If slopes are not snowed, it would be a big problem for the whole region.” Governing Councillor from the Canton of Uri Josef Arnold expects heavy storms in the future. That is why danger zones should be considered taboo and left out of future zoning processes.