The Alps are melting, but the villagers will not be moved
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Months after the catastrophe, residents and authorities in the Lötschental Valley are still plagued by questions. How aggressively can their government clear red tape to build new homes? How many residents will rebuild their lives in the new Blatten? And how will they navigate the dangers posed by the glacier that lies on the ruins of the village like a dying dragon, still melting, still moving, still muddying the question of where in the valley is safe?
What local leaders — and every resident I spoke with on a recent trip to the valley — are not asking is whether the villagers should move out of the mountains. That would be an existential question, for Swiss identity and for settlement across the Alps.
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“Our heart is here,” said Daniel Ritler, a lifelong Blatten resident who lost his house, his sprawling farm and the guest rooms he rented to tourists. “It was our paradise.”
The government’s rebuilding effort is led by Franziska Biner, the head of the energy and finance department of the Swiss canton, or state, of Valais, which includes Blatten. “We cannot say everyone needs to leave the places that are dangerous,” she explained in an interview, “because then we need to leave the canton.”
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