Drought prompts 90-kilometre irrigation project in Bernese Seeland

A 90-kilometre underground irrigation network near Ins in the canton of Bern is planned to secure water supplies for agriculture, SRF reports. The project is expected to cost around 15 million Swiss francs and eventually serve 1,700 hectares of farmland.

The existing irrigation system, which uses canals across the Bernese Seeland, is increasingly reaching its limits. Aurelia Marti of the Ins-Gampelen-Gals agricultural cooperative said the canals were originally built mainly for drainage. Although they were also used for irrigation, changing weather conditions, drier summers and higher quality requirements from buyers mean farmers now need to irrigate much more than they did in the 1970s.

The planned replacement is a closed system of underground ring pipelines. Instead of drawing water directly from the canals with mobile diesel pumps, farmers will receive it through underground transport lines. Fixed outlets at individual plots will allow them to connect their hoses.

The new network will increase water capacity and allow farmers to irrigate at the same time when crops need it most. Water will be taken from the Broye and the Zihl Canal. According to the cooperative, maximum extraction would amount to 2 percent of the average flow.

Farmers will still be expected to save water

The federal government and landowners, particularly those in the municipalities of Ins, Gampelen, Gals and Vinelz, are expected to finance the project. The new system is intended to prevent water waste, Marti said. Because operating and maintaining the network will cost money and farmers will pay for every cubic metre of water, they will have an incentive to use the resource efficiently.

The project would also replace the existing diesel pumps with electrically powered pumps. This would reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of local food production and the noise affecting residents and farmers.

Vegetable farmer Ueli Kirchhofer of Ins supports the plan. He said electric pumps would end the sector’s reliance on imported fossil energy. Kirchhofer would also like solar installations to be built in the region to meet the system’s energy needs, but the cooperative said this is not currently part of the first phase.

Similar project planned nearby

Around 150 kilometres of pipelines are planned for the ArroBroye irrigation project in the Broye region between the cantons of Vaud and Fribourg. The network is intended to pump water from Lake Neuchâtel to fields farmed by more than 170, or around 200, farmers, according to the source.

Marti said the two projects are similar in scale. The dry summer of 2026 has highlighted the need for agriculture to prepare for future droughts.

If the plan proceeds as scheduled, the documents will be publicly displayed at the beginning of 2027. Construction could start as early as the end of 2028, with completion planned for 2035.