Water is common property. It belongs to all of us. So far, Germany is still considered a water-rich country. But climate change and the careless extraction of groundwater are also changing the situation here in the foreseeable future. “There are already more and more regions in Germany that are struggling massively with water shortages,” says Uwe Ritzer from the SZ business editorial team. Since the turn of the millennium, Germany has lost groundwater equivalent to that of Lake Constance. And three quarters of the water used “in the broadest sense goes to the economy”.
Ritzer criticizes the fact that the federal states demand little or nothing from companies that make unrestrained use of the natural resource. So beverage manufacturers would bottle a common good and sell them. “And the profits are privatized.”
Unfortunately, the “national water strategy” decided by the federal government in March 2023 is just a “catalog of wishes,” says Ritzer. In fact, action must be taken immediately on many levels in order to ensure the long-term supply of clean and affordable drinking water to the German population.
You can find Uwe Ritzer’s articles about drinking water supplies here, about saving water here and about the situation in the Ahr Valley two years after the disaster here. Ritzer’s report on the entrepreneur Michael Schäff, who became very rich by decanting drinking water, can be found here.
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