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Berlin (German news agency) – The German Association of Towns and Municipalities is pushing for water distribution to be prioritized in Germany in the event of water shortages. “Especially with a view to increasing heat and drought periods, the federal, state and local governments must jointly develop clear guidelines for dealing with water shortages,” said managing director Gerd Landsberg of the “Handelsblatt” (Wednesday edition).
Against this background, the “National Water Strategy” is to be welcomed, which the federal government intends to adopt in the cabinet this Wednesday. From Landsberg’s point of view, possible conflicts of interest in the water supply “must be solved in the sense of a clear prioritization of water use”. So “the public water supply must always have priority” where there is not enough water for all consumers such as agriculture or industry. Depending on the region, Landsberg also considers additional interconnected networks and long-distance pipelines to be necessary in order to compensate for regional differences in water availability.
“We therefore also need an investment acceleration law for municipal water management.” The “acceleration rules” created for the construction of LNG terminals should serve as a positive example here. In addition, Landsberg considers measures to prevent water pollution from pesticides, microplastics or drug residues to be necessary. In case of doubt, the manufacturers of such groups of substances would have to “bear the full costs of the wastewater treatment for a fourth cleaning stage”.
The Federation of German Industries (BDI) rejects this. “Various sources are responsible for the entry of trace substances into water, such as manufacturers, trade, private and commercial consumers and agriculture,” said the association when asked by the “Handelsblatt” (Wednesday edition). A “unilateral financial burden” on the manufacturer to specify the polluter pays principle is “inappropriate” from the point of view of German industry.
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