In 2023, UNESCO declared traditional irrigation to be part of humanity’s intangible heritage, and designated 2025 as the International Year of Glacier Preservation. These international initiatives underline the urgency of taking sustainable action to manage resources together, at a time when scientific forecasts are alarming: by the end of the century, most Alpine glaciers will have disappeared. Mountain agriculture, tourism, energy production and ecosystems will all be affected. Water will be increasingly at the heart of the debate.

Are the bisses a solution rather than a problem, thanks to their collective management?

Gaëtan Morard, director of the Musée valaisan des Bisses, gives us the answer, as he takes us along on the water trail.

Production: IDIP Films and Association du Musée valaisan des Bisses, Ayent
Director: Yves Magat
More information and trailer here.

Yves Magat is a Swiss journalist and director. He worked for 34 years at RTS, radio and TV, mainly in the news department, and was formerly a correspondent in Washington. He currently makes documentary films on environmental issues: circular economy, melting glaciers.

Gaëtan Morard, ethnobiologist and permaculturist, has been director-curator and scientific manager of the Musée valaisan des Bisses since 2015 and president of the ABV – Association des Bisses du Valais since 2019. He was one of the bearers of the UNESCO file for the inscription of traditional irrigation on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Si les glaciers ne revenaient pas, 2024. Bisse Roux, Anniviers, Lambert Zufferey and Gaëtan Morard. © Photo: Yves Magat

Si les glaciers ne revenaient pas, 2024. Tournage, Lucien Morard, guard of the Bisse de Sion. © Photo: Yves Magat