Authorities have launched a competition to gather ideas to salvage thousands of tonnes of munitions sunk in Swiss waters.
The three best ideas will receive a huge prize of 50,000 Swiss francs ($57,800), the Federal Defence Procurement Agency (Armasuisse) said in a statement, with the government looking for ideas that are safe and environmentally friendly.
“By launching the ideas competition, ALMA Switzerland wants to increasingly involve academia and industry in considering environmentally friendly and safe ways of retrieving deep-sea munitions, should this become an issue,” the statement read.
“This could happen if, contrary to expectations, release of contaminants from submerged munitions is identified during ongoing lake monitoring.”
The competition is open to the public, with submissions due in February 2025. A panel of expert judges will review the submissions and announce the results in April 2025.
An estimated 3,300 tons of munitions are reportedly submerged in Lake Lucerne, and 4,500 tons in Lake Neuchâtel alone, deposited there between 1918 and 1964.
Some of the munitions are located at depths of 150-220 metres, while others, particularly those on Lake Neuchâtel, are located 6-7 metres below the surface.
The submerged munitions are reportedly covered in a fine layer of sediment and any attempt to retrieve them could destroy the delicate lake ecosystem and devastate the surrounding tourism industry.
Experts argue that even if the ideas were proposed soon, it could take years and billions of dollars to launch an operation, but the Swiss government believes the ideas could form the basis for future research to address the problem of underwater weapons.
Notably, the threat of abandoned munitions in public places is not a new phenomenon in Switzerland: in 1947, the alpine village of Mitholz suffered a massive explosion when 3,000 tonnes of munitions stored by the military in the mountains above the village exploded.
The explosion killed nine people, destroyed an entire village and was heard as far away as Zurich, 100 miles away.
(With input from relevant agencies)
