Drought summer: Industry hardly has to save water

In the drought summer, everyone should save water. Industry consumes the most. However, according to a survey by SWR and corrective.

Water as a resource is becoming more and more precious in Germany. This summer too, extremely high temperatures and water shortages in many regions of Germany led to crop failures, forest fires that were difficult to extinguish and shortages of drinking water. Experts even speak of a drought of the century.

The lack of water is an underestimated danger, said Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (B90/The Greens) in an interview with the SWR-Investigative format FULL IMAGE. “That wasn’t what we had in mind before, we thought we had it in abundance, we have a lot of water. And now we will have drought in some regions. It will continue, it won’t go away.”

More than half of municipalities nationwide were reporting water shortages, a survey found report Munich and the magazine “Kommunal”. 16 percent of the municipalities have therefore already adopted cost-cutting measures such as the ban on car washing or garden and pool irrigation.

In the community of Panketal in Brandenberg, for example, the situation was so acute this summer that there was no longer enough water for households or fire-fighting operations. Mayor Maximilian Wonke (SPD) said to VOLLBILD: “30 years ago it was still: Take as much water as you need, (…) then the pipes are flushed well. (…) In the meantime it has really turned completely around.” Residents were threatened with fines of up to 1,000 euros if they watered their gardens or filled pools with water between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Industry removes 72 percent of the water

So far, when it comes to water-saving measures, the focus has primarily been on citizens. However, by far the most water is used by industry. For comparison: According to the Federal Environment Agency, a total of 24 billion cubic meters of water were withdrawn from rivers, lakes and groundwater in 2016. Water suppliers used a little more than 3.7 billion cubic meters of raw water for households and small businesses that year. About 18.5 billion cubic meters of water flowed for the energy sector as well as mining and manufacturing. Industrial consumption thus represents a large part – about 72 percent of the total water withdrawal.

But the federal and state governments hardly draw any conclusions from this circumstance: the water-intensive industry, which swallows billions of cubic meters of water every year, is hardly held accountable. This is shown by a nationwide survey by VOLLBILD and the Correctiv research center.

Only five federal states – Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saarland, Saxony – have concrete plans to adjust the water abstraction fees for industry to the emergency and to increase them. These are the fees companies pay when they take water from groundwater, lakes and rivers.

In some federal states, companies pay little or nothing at all

While private households are asked to pay for drinking water, in some federal states very little or no payment has been made for groundwater and surface water abstracted. Water-intensive companies in particular benefit from this.

On request, Bremen reported that an adjustment to the law on water extraction fees was “currently being specifically prepared and should take place as soon as possible”. In Hamburg there is already a draft law to increase the fee for groundwater extraction. According to its own statements, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania plans to adjust the water withdrawal fee as part of the amendment to the state water law. The Saarland states that an adjustment is planned for 2024. Saxony reports that an amendment to the water law has been initiated that will impose higher taxes on many water withdrawals and remove exceptions.

Three federal states – Bavaria, Brandenburg, Hesse – are discussing an adjustment, but are not yet specific in their plans. According to the statement, the introduction of a water cent and the creation of a legally secure basis for authorization in the Bavarian Water Act is currently being examined in Bavaria. So far, no fees have been demanded from companies in Bavaria for the abstraction of groundwater. This condition is “historical,” writes the Bavarian State Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection. In Hesse and Thuringia, too, no water withdrawal fees have been levied to date.

Upon request, six other federal states announced that they had no plans to adjust the fees for companies. Both Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein as well as Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia do not have Efforts to change some of the current regulations for the industry. A spokesman for the Ministry for Science, Energy, Climate Protection and the Environment in Saxony-Anhalt writes that the “overall economic situation does not currently allow an adjustment of the water abstraction fee for industry”. The inquiries to Berlin and Lower Saxony have so far remained unanswered.

Confederation does not draw any quickly effective consequences

The federal government is apparently also not drawing any quick consequences from the drought this summer: “We are working with companies and industry to achieve long-term reduction and reuse with the water strategy,” said Federal Environment Minister Lemke SWR. The Greens politician wants to tackle the water scarcity in Germany with the National Water Strategy, which is due to be published in early 2023.

However, most of the water strategy measures are not expected to come into force until 2030 and be completed by 2050. In addition, none of the 57 points in the draft obliges industry to take specific measures, even though it is responsible for a large part of water consumption.

“The federal level cannot make rigid specifications for each individual company,” admitted Lemke. According to research by Correctiv, companies with large water consumption include the chemical group BASF and the energy group RWE.

Long-term contracts problematic

Lemke also criticized long-term water use contracts that guarantee high withdrawals. These contracts allow companies to withdraw certain amounts of water from groundwater, rivers or lakes at a fixed price for decades. Some of these deals were made decades ago. “If we then have guaranteed very long-term and high water withdrawals, for industry, for agriculture, that can lead to problems,” emphasizes Minister Lemke.

BASF is one of the companies with long-standing, long-term water use contracts. In 2021, the group used 18.5 million cubic meters of groundwater and extracted around 1.2 billion cubic meters of water from the Rhine. According to the group, 98 percent of the industrial water flows back into the river. However, 24 million cubic meters of process water are lost primarily through evaporation.

They are missing from the Rhine, from which almost 30 million people get their drinking water. on SWR-Inquiry, BASF writes that the company has set itself the goal of introducing “sustainable water management” and is already implementing this today. In addition, the chemical company wants to take less water from the Rhine for cooling purposes in the future.

The film on the subject is available at www.youtube.de/vollbild and in the ARD media library.