Because of the increasing water shortage in Bavaria, there should not only be more economical use of water in the future, but also a national distribution system. This was announced by Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) and Environment Minister Thorsten Faithr (free voters) on Wednesday after a round table on water shortages with experts, authorities and municipalities in Munich. Environmental organizations were not invited to the meeting.
“The goal must be to use water more efficiently. Not just to use water thoughtlessly, but to use it consciously and of course to have peace about water,” said Söder. There are fundamental lines of conflict between the economic users and regional struggles over distribution. “And that requires a really clever, balanced mix of ideas.”
Specifically, Söder also announced the introduction of the so-called water cent again for the coming year. This levy for the extraction of groundwater was actually supposed to be introduced in the current legislative period, but was then repeatedly postponed by the government because, in their opinion, the population and the economy should not be burdened with additional costs.
In order to better supply the regions with water in particular, a supra-regional long-distance water supply is to be created. It is to lead from Lake Constance via the Franconian administrative districts to Lower Bavaria, including the Mauthaus drinking water dams in Upper Franconia and Frauenau in Lower Bavaria. The aim is to further strengthen the public water supply on site, says Glauber.
The Greens in the state parliament criticized the meeting as a “quick-fix procedure”. It has been known for years that groundwater and drinking water in Bavaria must be better protected. The Söder government has so far ignored the urgency. Among other things, the Greens called for more water protection areas to be designated and for the extraction of deep groundwater to be banned, with a few exceptions.
The chairman of the state association for bird and nature conservation, Norbert Schäffer, said in a statement that Bavaria has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to water protection. A program for the renaturation of 10,000 kilometers of streams in Bavaria must come, because natural streams would keep the water in the area much longer than straightened streams. He also called for the re-irrigation of drained moors, which are important for both climate protection and species protection.