January 2003 - Nr. 1
Winter Floods Stir Up Memories of August 2002
TWIG - Germans breathed a collective sigh of relief on Sunday (January 5) as the country’s swelling rivers, threatening to repeat the damage caused by last summer’s heavy flooding, finally began to subside. Emergency volunteers, once again piling sandbags near the Elbe, Main and Saale Rivers, took heart from the news that floodwaters were lower than predicted last week, though observers estimate they have already set Germany back millions of euros. This week’s below-freezing temperatures helped keep the rivers in check.
Northern Thuringia and parts of Bavaria, Saxony and Baden-Württemberg were among the regions on alert during this month’s wet season. The Naab River rose high enough in the Bavarian community of Kallmünz to damage heating systems in many buildings, a major problem now that temperatures have dropped. Yet flood warnings were called off this week in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, and Cologne, a city that is particularly vulnerable to flooding, will be spared the worst, according to officials at its flood control center. "The Altstadt [old city center] is saved," announced one expert. The waters of the Elbe River were rising more gradually than expected and did relatively little damage to Dresden, a city heavily affected by the floods of August 2002.
Still, this month’s brush with yet another flooding disaster has prompted the conservation organization World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to call for a radical overhaul of Germany’s flood control policy. Current floods are just a foretaste of the future, declared WWF officials in Frankfurt. Nature is taking revenge for the misguided policies of the past 150 years, the organization claims, pointing to the straightening of rivers, overdevelopment of streambeds and settling of flood plains. Thuringia environment minister Volker Sklenar (CDU) has called for a ban on construction in areas that see regular flooding. "We need to be stricter about granting permits for new construction in wetlands and flood regions," he declared, appealing to municipal leaders "not to allow business developments, no matter how attractive, in endangered regions."
