DARK FUTURE PROSPECTS

If fresh glacier water is currently flowing into the Rhine after the snow melts in spring, this source will have dried up in 30 to 40 years - i.e. in the 2050s, says meteorologist Andreas Wagner in an SWR interview. More optimistic estimates put the end of glacier water by the year 2100.
 

From this point on, the amount of water in the river could decline by a third to half in the midsummer month of August, the International Commission for the Hydrology of the Rhine Region (KHR) has calculated - with dramatic consequences for waterworks, farmers and industry. Even the numerous tributaries of the Rhine will not be able to absorb this loss.