As Europe's “water tower,” Switzerland needs new, sustainable solutions for managing water as a vital resource. At the “Blue Summit 2025” conference in Reichenau Castle on Wednesday, personalities from research, politics, business and society discussed issues relating to the availability and quality of water.
Successful Blue Summit Switzerland 2025
The second Blue Summit Switzerland had set itself the goal of bringing facts from science to politics, business and society. In presentations and workshop discussions, facts were presented and the conclusions were discussed. The almost 100 participants included government, national and state councilors from several cantons and a wide range of parties.
They discussed with researchers from various fields as well as experts from companies and administrations who deal with water issues. “We need to collect every drop of rainwater, treat water, reuse it endlessly and desalinate a lot of seawater,” said Harry Seah, water issues consultant to the Singapore government, about the challenges in his six-million city.
Professor Max Maurer from EAWAG/ETH pointed out the major challenges in Switzerland to make water management more climate-resilient. Professor Eberhard Morgenroth from EAWAG/ETH called for a budgetary use of water. With suitable measures, households could save 30 to 80 percent of their water consumption. Rudolf Lüthi pointed out water consumption abroad, which is due to the production of imported goods.
The person responsible for water issues at Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation presented the water footprint of known goods. Water consumption, its cycles and water infrastructures were among the central topics. Using examples and findings from research in Switzerland and abroad, experts explained the problems and presented innovative approaches for managing water in the future. Together with politicians present, they then outlined fields of action and opportunities for political initiatives.
This is because water issues must be incorporated into Switzerland's future environmental, agricultural, infrastructure, financial and foreign policies. However, water issues are also the responsibility of cantons and municipalities, said Graubünden Governing Councillor Dr. Carmelia Maissen at the end of the congress. There would be no way around agreeing on smarter and optimized management of natural water resources and artificial water reservoirs in the future.
“Municipalities that have water sovereignty in Grisons also have a particular responsibility here,” said Maissen. “The response to the second Blue Summit Switzerland and the composition of the audience are a great success,” said co-initiator Heinz Habegger on the sidelines of the conference. “We must be able to put the issue of water more on the political agenda. That is why it was important that we dealt so intensively with water today.”
The Blue Summit Switzerland dialogue platform was developed in collaboration with Graubünden water organized. Water Ambassador Ernst Bromeis, on whose initiative Graubünden Wasser was founded, was delighted that experts from all parts of the country and from abroad had come to Reichenau.
It is based in Reichenau Castle and opened its first here last fall World Water Library.
More information on the Blue Summit Switzerland website.
Media release of the Blue Summit 2025 dated February 12, 2025.
Christian Gartmann has been supporting the communication and media relations of the “The Blue Wonder” initiative by water ambassador Ernst Bromeis since 2013.