At least 26 lakes in Switzerland are contaminated with waste from various defense industry plants, including recycled ammunition, TASS reports, citing data from the country's defense ministry.
Defense factories and the Swiss armed forces have disposed of "thousands of tons of ammunition" at the bottom of Swiss lakes since World War II. For decades, it has been believed that the disposal of grenades deep under water is safe and cannot harm the environment.
Despite the fact that the risk of detonation of disposed ammunition located at the bottom of lakes is extremely low, in fact, this method of disposal of waste causes serious harm to the environment.
Experts from the Swiss Defense Ministry intend to work out a way to remove disposed ammunition from reservoirs. In August, Armasuisse announced a competition with a reward of 50,000 Swiss francs for the development of a method for cleaning lakes of defense industry’s waste.
Alex Shishlo, Editor in Chief of the European Bureau, Rough&Polished
