"The Birch glacier gave way at Blatten. And with it, part of our economic certainties," say Brewen Latimier, manager, and Virginie Captier, director of Colombus Consulting.
On 28 May 2025, the Birch glacier collapsed onto the village of Blatten. More than 500,000 m³ of ice detached from the mountain, causing the death of one person and leaving a devastated territory in its wake. While this event shocked people with its violence, it also embodies a reality we can no longer ignore: water, which we thought was stable, abundant, and controllable, is becoming a factor of profound uncertainty.
Climate disruption is no longer an abstraction. It imposes itself in our valleys, in our lakes, in our balance sheets. And the collapse of the Birch is the symbol of this: it shows us that what we thought was fixed can suddenly tip. Changes are accelerating, water balances are eroding, and with them, traditional economic models.
For a long time, Switzerland considered itself sheltered. Country of dams, rivers, glaciers. A reassuring image that no longer withstands the facts. According to the Swiss Commission for the Observation of the Cryosphere, the country lost more than 10% of its glacial mass between 2022 and 2023. A rapid, brutal melting that calls into question the regulatory role of glaciers, essential for feeding our rivers in summer, stabilizing our slopes, irrigating our crops, and generating electricity.
The progressive disappearance of permafrost, that invisible geological anchor, increases the risk of rockfalls and landslides. River flows are becoming irregular, more strained, more conflictual. Water management is no longer a matter of engineering: it is now a strategic and systemic issue.
In this unstable landscape, some companies still move forward with their eyes closed. Yet the signals are clear. For example, in 2024, floods in Valais paralyzed several Swiss aluminum suppliers, notably affecting a strategic supplier for Porsche. The German manufacturer had to halt production for several days, resulting in significant lost revenue. A local incident with global repercussions: this is what an economy vulnerable to water looks like.
This example clearly shows that water issues do not stop at the borders of direct operations. Water is everywhere — and often invisible. It is present in agricultural supply chains, in processed products, in cooling circuits, in electronic components. This is what is called virtual water: the water you don't see but consume when importing cotton, using the services of a data center, or financing a project abroad in an area under water stress. Failing to integrate this dimension is to ignore an essential part of the risk.
When water becomes unstable, it is not only ecosystems that falter, but profitability models themselves.
In 2023, companies that responded to CDP Water reported more than $15.5 billion in economic losses related to water. Yet, in the majority of Swiss companies, water remains absent from risk maps, executive committees, and ESG indicators. It is perceived as a technical data point, not as a strategic issue.
Some signals offer hope for change: investors such as UBS, Pictet, and Swiss Re are beginning to integrate water risks into their analyses. FINMA is encouraging greater transparency.
When water becomes unstable, it is not only ecosystems that falter, but profitability models themselves. A company that does not map its water dependencies — visible or virtual — deprives itself of an essential lever of strategic resilience.
Companies that want to anticipate rather than endure can rely on several levers: they must first map their vulnerabilities — not only in their direct operations, but also across their entire value chain. This requires taking into account the virtual water footprint of raw materials, transport, digital services, or supplies.
Next, it is time to put water on the strategic agenda. Like carbon or cybersecurity, water management must be integrated into investment decisions, product development, and procurement.
Then comes action: reduce consumption, reuse water, invest in efficient technologies, forge local partnerships. Because water management is also a territorial issue. Cooperating with cantons, utilities, and other users is essential to preserve the resource and avoid conflicts.
Water is no longer a certainty. It is a governance test. What the collapse of the Birch glacier reveals is our collective vulnerability to a resource we long considered a given.
Water is no longer a certainty. It is a governance test. What the collapse of the Birch glacier reveals is our collective vulnerability to a resource we long considered a given. But it is also an opportunity: to think differently, to align sustainability with strategy, to anticipate rather than repair.
True performance is no longer measured only by profitability or the tons of CO₂ avoided. It also lies in the ability to secure water across the entire value chain, to understand visible and invisible flows, and to act responsibly.
The Swiss economy was built on water. It will only stand if it learns to preserve, share, and manage it intelligently. Those who can integrate this new reality will make the difference. The others will suffer it.
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