The word 'HELP' has been scratched out on the dry lake bed. (AFP Photo)
The picturesque Lac des Brenets between France and Switzerland has dried up after a record-breaking hot summer, leaving locals crying out for help to save the lake.
Indeed, the words “HELP” and “SOS” have been scratched out in the weeds now flourishing on the exposed lake bed.
The drought has ruined pleasure boat tourism, while some question whether the lake will ever return to enduring full health.
“It’s absolutely heartbreaking. It really is emotionally devastating, because it’s utter despair: No more lake,” said amateur local historian David Favre, who lives in the Swiss village of Les Brenets.
“As children, we used to spend all our summers swimming at the beach, having fun by the water, diving, jumping in and sometimes even fishing,” the 76-year-old told AFP.
But “since the last drought in 2018, it’s been a disaster. Unfortunately, the lake empties out every couple of years, or soon, perhaps every year,” he added, saying he felt the authorities have “completely abandoned” the lake.
The Doubs River rises in the French Jura mountains and normally forms a lake at Les Brenets, where it begins to mark the border between France’s Franche-Comte region and Switzerland’s Neuchatel canton.
The lake ends at 27-meter-high waterfall, which has now stopped flowing.
The lake has dried up due to a combination of factors, including geological fissures that drain water underground, below-average rainfall and repeated heatwaves.
A task force was set up by French and Swiss authorities in 2022, notably to explore ways of limiting the water draining into the fissures, but has not resulted in decisive action.
