Home » News » Heat live: parents forget two-year-olds in the car – police are investigating

Heat live: parents forget two-year-olds in the car – police are investigating

The first municipalities in Rhineland-Palatinate are calling for water saving

Because of the persistent drought, the first communities in Rhineland-Palatinate are calling for water conservation. There is still no acute emergency in the water supply, said the advisor for water management at the Rhineland-Palatinate Association of Towns and Municipalities, Thomas Rätz, in Mainz. “But there are signals that show that it is getting tighter.”

For example, the community of Simmern-Rheinböllen in the Rhein-Hunsrück district has already issued bans due to the threat of water shortages: In order to ensure the basic supply of drinking water, pools or paddling pools in gardens have not been allowed to be filled, green areas have been watered or cars on private property since Sunday getting washed.

The municipality of Montabaur in the Westerwald has also called on its citizens to use water sparingly. Significantly more water is consumed on hot days, so the resource should now be used carefully, said the association.

With a view to a possible water scarcity, there are regional differences, said Rätz. More likely to be affected by the problem are communities in low mountain ranges that “have relatively close groundwater resources and where it is known that the rate of new formation has been falling for a long time”. This included parts of the Hunsrück, the Eifel, the Westerwald and the Palatinate Forest. There are very old and deep groundwater resources on the Rhine. “They are usually not affected at all,” said Rätz.

According to the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of the Environment, the third hot summer in a row shows: “Climate change is already clearly noticeable in Rhineland-Palatinate.” the water supply arise. “

The mean new groundwater formation has decreased by around 25 percent over the past 15 years compared to the long-term mean. In the long term, water suppliers are already working on equipping the drinking water supply for the future through extensive supply networks, the ministry said. One example is the 32-kilometer long long-distance water pipeline from the Primstalsperre to the Steinbachtalsperre, which was funded by the state with around 21 million euros.

With persistent drought and increasing water demand, it makes sense to draw consumers’ attention to the careful use of water, said Horst Meierhofer, the managing director of the State Association of Energy and Water Management Hesse / Rhineland-Palatinate. However, groundwater problems are rather rare. “When things get tight, it’s more of an infrastructure problem”. Water pipes can only be loaded up to the maximum. The current situation is a challenge, but “not dramatic”.

Despite the current extreme heat and drought, there is still no low water on the Rhine. “We do not have a worrying situation,” said hydrologist Jörg Uwe Belz from the Federal Institute for Hydrology in Koblenz of the German Press Agency in Koblenz. The Rhine at the Kaub gauge in the Rhein-Lahn district, for example, currently carries around 30 percent less water than is usual seasonally. However, this is still just under a meter above the mark at which one speaks of low water.

Precipitation in southern Germany would have brought a certain relaxation. The expert expected that the water levels will fall again. “Basically, the typical low water situation on the Rhine is not to be expected until autumn, ie in October or November.” However, other small bodies of water such as the Nahe or the Wied would already have low water.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.