The SFOE is the federal supervisory authority for the safety of water retaining facilities in Switzerland. Water retaining facilities and their dams are used to hold or store water and sludge, and to retain debris, ice and snow. The water stored is used mainly to generate power, protect against floods, supply drinking water, or for irrigation, artificial snow production, fish farming, fire-fighting and lake level control. Around 90% of water retaining facilities produce hydropower.
However, water retaining facilities also present major risks: dam failure can cause loss of human life and enormous damage to property. Legislation aims to prevent this. The Water Retaining Facilities Ordinance requires operators to provide flood maps for their facilities that show the areas that would be flooded in the event of dam failure.
