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Climate change is also challenging agriculture in Kyrgyzstan. Valais inspires Central Asia with its bisses.
The bisses are world-famous. The wooden pipes that bring water from the glaciers to the alpine meadows and fields further down the valley once helped Valais develop its agriculture.
What is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and sounds a lot like the past is becoming increasingly important in times of climate change. Switzerland’s moated castle is increasingly suffering from drought. And not just Valais. But dry areas abroad also want solutions for their agriculture.
Legend:
With the help of the bisses, water was and is transported over long distances from the mountains into the valley to the fields.
Keystone/Gaetan Bally
Kyrgyzstan is located in Central Asia and has always been a dry country. Most fields rely on irrigation. To gain inspiration, a Kyrgyz delegation recently traveled to Valais to inspect various bisses there.
We have the legal framework so that people can help themselves.
«This technology is new for me. In Kyrgyzstan we are building concrete irrigation canals. I’ve never seen one made of wood before,” says Jyldyz Abdyllaeva, she is project manager of the Helvetas Kyrgyzstan water project. For a long time, water supply in the country was centralized. A law was only recently passed that allows communities to manage their own water supply.
“We now have a legal framework so that local communities can help themselves. For example, you can now build new irrigation canals or renovate and repair existing ones. This means that farmers will have more water available in the future,” says Abdyllaeva.
Irrigation is also becoming more important in Valais
In Valais, the communities have long had sovereignty over their water supply: “All the side streams and backwaters belong to the communities, only the Rhone belongs to the canton,” says Valais State Councilor Franz Ruppen.
Legend:
The Valais bisses are so characteristic that they even adorn the current hundredth note.
Keystone/Laurent Gillieron
Nevertheless, the canton must ensure that the water supply is guaranteed, he says. The bisses are part of the water strategy of the canton of Valais. For example, the canton supports communities by participating in the rehabilitation of bisses if they are used for agriculture.
If we look at the climate forecasts, the bisses will continue to be central in the future.
A bisse in the Valais village of Anniviers was recently renovated. The Grand Bisse de St. Luc water pipeline now brings water back to the fields. This is important, says Danièle Zufferey, local councilor in Anniviers: “It is very sunny here on this side of the valley. In view of the climate forecasts, we as a community had to think about how we could continue to secure water in the future and the renovation of this bisse was one of our main projects.”
The centuries-old knowledge about the bisses and the Valais way of building and organizing water supplies should one day also flow into irrigation in Kyrgyzstan.