What the summer comes as an extended late therefore developed increasingly to disaster. Seven weeks before the end of the year is like in and around Berlin so far, only half as much rain, as is to be expected in an average year would be: 300 instead of 600 litres per square metre. For this purpose, the duration of the summer, began with a nearly six degrees to warm in April and ends in the five degree mild November. Although it will soon be colder, as the weather service Meteogroup stresses, but to the dramatic drought which was exacerbated by high evaporation due to the heat – nothing will change.
in the Meantime, days can in the two-week rhythm-country authorities of Berlin, Brandenburg and Saxony: On every second Monday will be negotiated in Cottbus neu, where Berlin still water. “The Situation is tense,” says Derk Ehlert of the Berlin environmental administration: A memory pool in upper Lusatia, Saxony was already empty and in the Brandenburg town of Spremberg for the last dam before the Berlin of the border, to either the Scots would have to be closed or the Spreewald forest would be choked with iron ochre from the brown coal mining polluted broth.
Rising level report only the retention basin, in which the sulphate-contaminated water from the brown coal mines is collected. “These pools are soon to be full,” says Ehlert. If they overflow, without that clean river water diluted your content, the sulfate content of the river Spree. This is first only for buildings are problematic, where the salt of the sulphuric acid is added. But inevitably, the concentration in the Large Müggelsee lake then descends to the shore of the water work friedrichshagen drinking water for several hundred thousand citizens of Berlin.
As for drinking water, a binding sulfate is the limit, would need to be supported more water from other plants or from deeper soil layers “of Reservoirs that will not fill so fast”, as Stephan Natz says, spokesman for the water company. The demand was reduced with the fall, but “next year people will remember, what goes in the gardens everything is broken, because it has not so deep roots”.
the winter months
the New groundwater formed in Berlin, according to experience, only in the winter half of the year, when the Vegetation is paused and less evaporates. “All are very Worried about the winter months”, says Ehlert, “especially since the floors are fully furnished. Even if it would extensively be raining, we will deal with this Situation for a very long time.”
In Parts of Brandenburg, the farmers must irrigate their winter crops, Spree, Havel and Dahme drying out. All three rivers carry about half as much water as usual in November. The groundwater levels in the Mark are partially sunk by half a Meter. That Berlin does not sit long on the Dry, thanks to the locks and the sewage treatment plants that populate the waters with treated wastewater. Therefore, the Havel in Spandau presses, for example, currently in the Spree and, in turn, in Köpenick upstream in the Müggelsee – the inflows from the sewage treatment plants in schönerlinde and Münchehofe make it possible. In the long run, this can affect the quality of the Müggelsee drinking water obtained. So far, the status of which is constant good, insured Naz.
While in some Parts of Germany for non-navigable rivers already, Fuel is scarce, for Berlin, therefore, no bottlenecks in sight: The fuels come by train from Schwedt and the large power plants of Vattenfall receive, according to company spokesman Olaf Weidner enough coal supplies. “Only in the case of supply procurement for Reuter and Reuter West we currently have to do a little less, because our contract partners to use smaller ships.”
If the deficiency is aggravated further, it can reduce the water – and shipping administration of the lock operation, so ships locks in the bunch. In the case of the Reederei Riedel says succinctly: “A sluice is a problem that we have, actually, always. But not because of water but because of shortage of staff at the locks.”
Ehlert assured that Berlin gets more water, as long as what is there: The city is financially involved in the Store and all drinking water issues to be aware of. In eight days, the next crisis meeting. Currently the Lusatian fisheries from help: In the autumn-empty, as usual, your ponds.
