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How rockslides are threatening mountain villages in Switzerland · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: The mountains are crumbling away. Glaciers are breaking apart. And
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: rock slides are burying entire villages. In the Alps, places
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: that were considered safe for decades are now in danger.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: It isn't easy because this is our home. These are
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: our roots.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: When should people be evacuated? You can see there's a problem,
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: but maybe it won't be for another five years.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: To move away or to stay? In Switzerland, this is
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: a question nobody wants to talk about. But why? In 2025,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: a glacier collapsed in the Luchental Valley, leaving the Swiss
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: village of Blatten almost completely buried and flooded. The 300
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: residents were evacuated in time. Only one life was lost,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: but the village could not be saved. Just 20 kilometres
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: from Blatten lies the town of Sankt Niklaus, also surrounded
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: by mountains. But new construction goes on as normal. Companies
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: are investing in Sankt Niklaus and new apartments are being built.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Life goes on, yet here too the mountains pose a threat.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Andreas Katna has experienced this new reality firsthand. In winter
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: a piece of the mountain broke off. Most of the
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: debris landed on the neighbouring sports field. One piece, however,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: cleared the railway tracks at the property line and landed
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: on his in-law's house. Fortunately, it was unoccupied, unlike the
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: houses in the surrounding area.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Due to this massive boulder, there was nothing more that
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: could be done for the house.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: The people of Valais live in constant fear of landslides.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: The people could no longer ignore the power of nature.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: If nothing happens for a long time, it gets forgotten.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: In that sense, it's good when an event like this
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: happens every now and then. It reminds us that nature
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: is more powerful than humans.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Peaks reaching 4,500 meters reign over St.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Niklaus and its narrow, steep valley. The mountain slopes consist
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: of jagged rocks, crumbling material that could slide a thousand
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: metres down into the valley. The landslides are being documented
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: and studied. For 20 years, geoscientists have been surveying the
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: steep slopes. Time-lapse photography captures how they are constantly in motion.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: The reason for this lies higher up in what are
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: known as blocked glaciers, sheets of ice and rubble at
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: an altitude of 3,000 metres. Rising temperatures are causing them
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: to thaw, releasing the debris to tumble down into the valley.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: But what does this mean for the residents below? Should
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: settlements now be relocated? Should the population retreat? This is
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: a question for policymakers. But as Brigitte Wolf from the
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Green Party explains, climate change remains a sensitive issue for politicians.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: The first problem is simply acknowledging it. And there are
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: still political groups, parties, that would rather not face this reality,
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: would rather not say, yes, this is climate change, and
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: would rather put it off a little longer.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: When it comes to the village of Blatten, the goal
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: is clear. Reconstruction, whatever the cost. The mayor of this
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: village of 300 has secured hundreds of millions of francs
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: from the Swiss government for that purpose.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: The key message is this. We can no longer bring
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: back the old Blatten. What we want to do is
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: build a new Blatten.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Defying nature is something everyone in Switzerland seems to agree on,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: even in government.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: We also have a duty to make it possible for
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: you to live in the Lutschental again, just as you're
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: used to.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: After all, for most people in Switzerland, there is no
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: greater good than the right to one's hometown, which is
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: why the new Blatten is to be rebuilt in just
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: five years. Meanwhile, officials in the municipality of St. Niklaus
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: are investing in massive retention areas. These are designed to
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: stop all the debris that the increase in avalanches and
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: rockfalls will rain down in the future.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: We have a capacity here of about 15,000 to 20,000
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: cubic meters, up to the top edge. It would take
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: three or four days to haul all that material away.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: That means working non-stop until all the material is removed.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: The topic of relocating is especially taboo in valleys where
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the economy and industry continue to grow. After all, it
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: was only through engineering prowess and significant financial investments that
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Switzerland was able to make these steep mountain regions habitable
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: in the first place. Brigitte Wolf is sad that Swiss
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: politicians can't easily change these norms.
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: Change is always difficult for society to accept. Leaving your
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: home is a change that nobody wants. And a politician
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: who says, now we have to ban everything, change everything,
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: is committing political suicide.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Andreas Kattner doesn't see listening to nature and facing the
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: unpleasant consequences as something taboo. That's why he wants to
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: tear down what's left of the house and leave the
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: property undeveloped.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: The day may still come when we have to say,
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: time to go. That's not easy because this is our home.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: These are our roots. And our roots go deep. We've
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: just seen what happened with the landslide in Blatten. It's
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: terrible when you lose everything or have to leave it
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: behind because of danger from the mountains above.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Katna knows that fighting nature's forces is ultimately futile, but
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: he remains in the minority in Switzerland, and not just
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: in St. Niklaus.