The SHARING WATER research team Mathias Plüss (journalist) and Regina Hügli (photographer) visited the triple watershed at the Swiss Pass Lunghin. They worked on water-related topics in the three regions and language areas in its neighborhood in August 2020.
We were impressed by the abundance of sources and streams flowing from the waterheads around Pass Lunghin, and the range of coverage and influence of the river systems which have their origin there. The river Inn which rises 300 m below the Pass Lunghin meets the Danube at Passau and flows through Eastern Europe to the Black Sea, the river Julia joins the Rhine, flowing through Switzerland, Germany and Netherlands to the Northern Sea, and the river Mera joins other streams and rivers in Italy to flow into the river Po leading to the Mediterranean Sea.
Interestingly, the language areas accord very precisely with the flow of the river systems, there is only one exception: the village Bivio, situated at the northern (German-speaking) side of the Septimer Pass on the ancient route between Chiavenna and Chur. A small community with four actively spoken languages, with a main focus on Italian, who was influenced over centuries by the cultural impact of the trade route crossing the Alps at the Septimer Pass in Roman and Medieval times.
On behalf of water treatment in the region, our research focused on water power and barrier lakes and their ecological impact in the Valley Bregaglia. We explored the wild river Beverin and had a walk along the revitalized riverbanks of the river Inn with Anita Mazzota, managing director of WWF of Grisons, Switzerland.
The melting of glaciers and thawing of permafrost grounds due to climate change were another topic of our concern. We visited Pontresina where enormous banks had to be built to protect the community from sliding rock glaciers. We were fascinated by the walk on the Morteratsch glacier with the visionary glaciologist Dr. Felix Keller, who plans to test a newly developed energy-efficient artificial snowing system to slow down the melting of the glacier. This invention could be used globally at places where glaciers are the only direct source of water supply for villages and cities.
Our small team was based at Maloja these days, and was joined by Stefan Fraunberger, an Austrian musician and composer. He explored the grounds at Pass Lunghin to develop an acoustic project about the zone at the triple watershed.
