Discovery tour: Water in everyday life

WATER IN DAILY LIFE: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE WITH CLIMATE CHALLENGES

VERNISSAGE JULY 8, 2023 (call 027 607 11 80 or e-mail crealp@crealp.vs.ch)

Introduction
This 14-station tour introduces you to the topic of water in daily life from three perspectives:
A. The past with the topics: mills, fountains, bisses, sawmills etc.
B. The present: drinking water distribution network and its quality, waste water evacuation and its purification, electricity production by glacier water, quantities of water consumed
C. The future: from the point of view of climate change and necessary adaptation measures etc.

This tour starts at the Place de la Poste, makes a first turn in the upper (southern) part of the village, then descends to the bottom and returns to the middle where it ends in front of the museum "Centre de géologie et glaciologie" (open in summer on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons). It houses the temporary exhibition 2023 "Water: it flows from sources?

The past
Water is the basis of all life on earth, for humans, animals and plants.
Since the first man became sedentary (in Switzerland from 5000 BC, Neolithic) villages were created next to rivers, lakes or springs.

From the Roman period onwards, various mills with waterwheels allowed man to make his life easier by using the mechanical force of water to grind wheat, saw wood, pack fibers (ribe) and whip textiles (foulon) or to activate hammers or bellows of forges. Until the beginning of the 20th century, each mountain village had 3 to 6 mills of each type.

As early as the 13th century in the Valais, documents testify the existence of ingenious canals to irrigate the cultivated fields (bisses), which normally started in a torrent and often brought water also to the village fountains.

From the years 1925-30, electric lighting began to spread from Vex, where in 1917 a power station was built in Bramois, but was mainly used for the production of aluminum.

The present
In Evolène, it was in 1959 that drinking water started to be available in the houses, captured especially in the Val Arolla in the region of Satarma, did you know that?
And do you know how many liters of water each person consumes on average in Switzerland?
And have you ever heard of virtual water?

With the availability of affordable electric power through the construction of the Grande Dixence dam and the Dixence River catchments downstream, the old mills, sawmills etc. became obsolete and few survived this change.
Only since 2010, Evolène has a modern waste water treatment plant, before the waste water was treated in individual septic tanks which often overflowed into the Borgne.

The future: adapting to climate change
Our earth is getting warmer: the global temperature has started to rise and is already 1.5 degrees higher and still rising. With this increase, nature, of which we are a part, will need more and more water, but it will become more and more scarce...

Scientists, artists and journalists announce that nature is beginning to adapt to the new environmental conditions and that we should do the same, because extreme events such as drought, rapid retreat of glaciers, forest fires, floods, warming of river water with aquatic life at risk etc., threaten us and will be more and more frequent.
For us, water has always been a matter of course! Today, with climate change and the increase of the world population, the blue gold becomes even more precious.

This discovery tour tries to raise awareness and show how everyone could be ready to live happily without conflicts in the future of 2051.