More protected areas, stricter requirements, a withdrawal fee and a cadastre: To protect the increasingly scarce resource of drinking water, the Greens want to bring a Bavarian water security law into the state parliament. “Protecting our water has top priority. We want to protect our water from exploitation by corporations, from pollution and waste and from a state government that still has not understood how important it is to protect our elixir of life, water, especially in times of climate change “said parliamentary group leader Ludwig Hartmann. The law is a novelty in Germany and forms a superstructure to existing laws. The people of the country are rightly concerned. “Droughts and water shortages are no longer the exception in some parts of the country.”
Hartmann accused the CSU and Free Voters of putting the interests of corporations ahead of the drinking water supply for the people of Bavaria. He referred to the government factions’ plans to soften the protective regulations via an amendment to the state development program (LEP) for groundwater, which were only recently stopped after a public protest. The Water Safety Act includes several cornerstones: New uses of deep water are to be banned. The only exception: the public supply. In addition, twelve percent of the country’s area is to be designated as water protection areas by 2030, compared to only five percent at the moment. The Greens also want to quickly introduce a fee for the withdrawal of water, the so-called water cent, and a central water withdrawal register that shows who pumps how much water from the ground and where. Finally, the preservation of the local drinking water supply is to be included in the state planning law as an obligation to provide services of general interest. It is a great asset that the people in Bavaria mostly get their drinking water from regional wells. It is important to preserve that.