Switzerland offering $58,000 to fish out ammunition from lakes

In an attempt to fish out thousands of tonnes of munitions submerged in the depths of water bodies in Switzerland, the authorities have launched a competition to gather ideas.

The three best ideas will share a massive prize pot of50,000 Swiss francs ($57,800), according to a statement published by the Federal Office for Defence Procurement (Armasuisse).The government is looking for ideas that are safe and environmentally friendly.

“With the launching of an idea competition, armasuisse wants to increasingly involve academia and industry in the considerations on how environmentally friendly and safe recovery of deep lake ammunition could be carried out, should this ever become an issue,” read the statement.

“This could be the case if, against all expectations, the release of pollutants from submerged ammunition were to be established during ongoing lake water monitoring," it added.

The competition is open to the public and the last date to submit entries is February 2025. A panel of experts will assess the entries and announce the results in April 2025.

Challenges to retrieving munitions

According to reports, there is an estimated 3,300 tonnes of submerged ammunition in Lake Lucerne and 4,500 tonnes in Lake Neuchatel alone. They were dunked in the lakes between 1918 and 1964.

Some munitions are at a depth of 150 to 220 metres while others, especially in Lake Neuchatel are just six or seven metres below the surface.

According to reports, the submerged munition is covered bya fine sediment layer and recovery attempts may damage the sensitive lake ecosystem and kill the tourism around it.

Experts argue that even if the ideas are suggested quickly, it could take years and billions in funding to get the operation underway. However, the Swiss government is of the view that the ideas could form the basis of future research into dealing with the issue of submerged munitions.

Notably, the threat of munitions lying unattended in public spaces is not a new phenomenon in Switzerland, In 1947, the alpine village of Mitholz suffered a massive blast when 3,000 tonnes of ammunition, stored in the mountain by the military, overlooking the village exploded.

As many as nine people were killed in the blast and the entire village was destroyed. Such was the magnitude of the blast that it was heard 160 kilometres away in Zurich.

(With inputs from agencies)