Swiss lakes hide explosive secretFrom correspondents in Geneva
March 16, 2007 05:54am
SEVERAL thousand tonnes of surplus ammunition and explosives dumped at the bottom of Switzerland's lakes during the last century will remain there, the Swiss defence ministry said this week.
About 10,000 tonnes of surplus or disused artillery shells, grenades and bullets were stocked underwater in several Swiss lakes between 1918 and 1960, according to official data.
They include two idyllic tourist spots that are prized by foreign visitors to central Switzerland, Lake Lucerne and Lake Thun.
The defence ministry said it had reached an agreement with local authorities not to fish up the arsenals and to monitor water quality.
The underwater dumps grew sharply after World War II following an explosion in an underground storage bunker in the Alps, as the army sought to get rid of surplus defence stocks built up by the neutral country.
The munitions and explosives are sometimes spread over several square kilometres at depths of 200 metres.
Apart from ageing munitions or guns, the underwater trove also includes rejects from munitions factories, gas masks, barbed wire, field kitchens and crashed aircraft.
The Swiss air force added to the debris by using 25 waterways for target practice over the years, including Lake Constance, which is shared with Germany and Austria, and Lake Maggiore, straddling Italy.
However, army conscripts were ordered not to use lakes as targets during artillery practice, the Swiss defence ministry said.
