Saturday 27 August 2022
Islamabad (Urdu Point. DW Urdu. 27 August 2022) Water scarcity is a historical fact, which has often been the cause of competition. A 4,500-year-old stone from ancient Mesopotamia and present-day Iraq is on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris. On this stone are scenes of the battle fought between the kings of Lagash and Umma. The war was fought partly over water.
Since then, the value of water has increased manifold. There are about eight billion people living on earth and all of them need water to drink. Moreover, agricultural sector and industries also use a lot of water. But at the same time, climate change, asymmetric rainfall and frequent droughts and their duration are also affecting the availability of water resources.
Europe is facing the worst drought in the last five hundred years
When the African country of Ethiopia builds a dam on the upper reaches of the Nile, the people of Sudan and Egypt fear for their lives. The Aliso Dam in Turkey blocks the Tigris River, which means water shortages in Iraq. The Euphrates River is blocked at many places. A 2018 European Commission study on EMA identified eight rivers that are at risk of further conflict due to rapidly declining water use.
These include the Nile, Euphrates, Tigris, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Indus and Colorado rivers.
Drought in Germany
Germany was not included in the aforementioned report of the European Commission. Germany has so far been considered a water-rich country. Climate change is also making summers hotter and drier in the region between the Alps and the North Sea.
As a result, the region's landscapes are withering, wetlands are drying up and forests are burning. Under these conditions, rivers fail as arteries of navigation because they do not contain enough water for navigation. As groundwater levels continue to decline, concerns about the future are growing.
Take Liesel, a village of 500 on the banks of the Hunsruck River in western Germany.
There is resentment among the local residents against the two mineral water companies. These companies want to drill new water wells right in the middle of a natural park to increase their production. Residents of the village fear that their own wells will dry up. Indigenous affairs expert Holger Schindler asks if the extension of water extraction from the National Park is permissible. At least the test drilling appears to be legal in this case.
In 2015, shortly before the establishment of this national park, a drilling application was approved there.
According to Schindler, underground aquifers are decreasing. As a result, the biologist fears that in the coming days water conflicts may arise at the regional level in Germany as well.
A decades-old struggle for water
Cases related to water disputes are also increasing rapidly in German courts.
For example, in the northern German city of Lüneburg, the court is hearing a case related to the water supply to Hamburg, Germany's second largest city. A local water supply company 'Hamburg Wasser' has been supplying the city of Hamburg with water from Lüneburg for 40 years. Now this supply company wants to significantly expand the volume of this water.
Lüneburg's municipal administration set a water withdrawal limit in 2019 due to environmental concerns, after which Hamburg Wasser, or Hamburg Water, filed a court case against the decision. .
Thirsty industry
Meanwhile, especially for industrial production, water consumption remains high. American electric car maker Tesla's plant at Groeneheide in the federal state of Brandenburg also made headlines because it was built in the middle of a region that was already suffering from water shortages.
This new factory was established in an area, which is a protected area in terms of availability of drinking water. This car factory needs approximately 1.4 million cubic meters of water annually for its needs. Initially, the company had estimated its requirements at more than 3 million cubic meters. However, later he had to backtrack from his assumptions.
Meanwhile, water in the region has become so low that the water supply agency has started storing it. The average daily per capita consumption of water in this area is 175 litres. But if a new resident moves into the area, he is given a new water connection, under which he is allowed to use only 105 liters of water per person per day. Energy companies use particularly large amounts of water.
Lack of water rights and awareness
Dieter Borshardt, head of the water resources and environment department at Germany's Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, says it's good that Germany also has public water rights, which are protected by public service officials. He says, “Water is an inherited commodity, which must be managed and distributed fairly.
According to Borshart, regulatory authorities have to assess how much water is available in the region and how much water is to be used, and they must also ensure that this is done in a sustainable manner. However, the basis for decision-making is often weak. Martina Raschke, a water expert at BUND, the federal German environmental organization, conducted a survey on water availability among 13 districts and cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state.
Speaking to DW, Raschke said the survey concluded that responsible authorities often do not know how much groundwater they can use. In view of the increasing water scarcity, the German Federal Ministry of the Environment is also working on a national water strategy.
A draft presented by the ministry in 2021 outlined water supply concepts to be implemented between 2030 and 2050.
Borshart, a water expert, says that water management is a continuous process. According to him, the full effects of current climate change will not be clear until after 2050, "so we have to prepare for the coming years now."
(Matthias von Hyne)
This article was written primarily in German.
