Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / German residents near Berlin fight for their drinking water

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German residents near Berlin fight for their drinking water · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: The sight over water in Germany has begun. Just outside Berlin,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Tesla's expanding Red Bull also plans to grow and deep underground.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: A new copper miners being planned. How much these companies
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: pay for their water hasn't been made public. Parts of
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the groundwater data have been redacted.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: They don't care what happens to our water or what
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: happens to the people who live here.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: All of this is happening in Brandenburg, a region once
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: considered rich in water but now one of the driest
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: parts of Germany. In the small brandon Book town of Barut,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: sixty kilometers south of Berlin, mineral water has been bottled
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: since the nineteen nineties. The companies red Bull and Rauch
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: took over the site in early twenty twenty three. Now
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: they want to expand production, with a new canning plant
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: and additional facilities planned in the heart of a water
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: protection zone. Many locals here, the expansion will put even
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: more pressure on the region's scarce water.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: That's the climate has changed, and for the past ten years,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: groundwater lefls here have been falling. The soil is getting
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: drier and drier. It's a fact our fears that one
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  Speaker 2: day there won't be enough water.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: The Barwood water Works a licensed to extract a fixed
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: amount of groundwater each year. Ninety two percent of that
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: amount has been reserved for at Boulndrau. Just eight percent
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  Speaker 1: remains for the local drinking water supply. At Boulandrau's annual
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  Speaker 1: water use alone is equivalent to the yearly drinking water
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: needs of fifty seven thousand people in Germany. That's all
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: legal and a decades old contracts, says Peter IgG. Few
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: people have shaped Barot's development as much as he has
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Mayor for nearly twenty five years. He has been a
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: driving force behind the area's industrial growth. He doesn't see
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: water as a problem.
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  Speaker 2: We have immadin.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: We've always given priority to supplying local people. That's written
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: into all the contracts. But to be fair, we don't
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: have a very large population. My forty three hundred residents
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: consume a certain amount of water and that's simply what
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: they need. A beverage factory obviously uses much more. That's
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  Speaker 3: why the ratio of water usage is roughly one to
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  Speaker 3: ten whole.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Irina Englhert is a professor of hydrogeology in Berlin and
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I spent years studying Brandon Books groundwater Resources.
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  Speaker 2: I'm increasingly concerned about Brandenburg's water resources. I think the
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: problem is that the available water resources, what we call
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: the water supply, are currently being overestimated by the authorities
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: in Brandenburg.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: The contracts underpinning the beverage company's current water rights date
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: back to the nineteen nineties, a time when climate change
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: and water scarcity we're barely part of the debate and
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  Speaker 1: Brandon Book.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Factors have changed. Groundwater levels have fallen, groundwater recharge has
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: changed along with land use. The study doesn't reflect those changes.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: That's why Anglhert and local residents are calling for new
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  Speaker 1: and dependent studies that are publicly available.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: The town keeps saying there's constant monitoring to make sure
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: everything is fine. So we requested the data from the
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: state environmental agency and this is what we got, pages
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: and pages of blacked out tables. They told us the
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: information was redacted to protect the location of wells, which
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  Speaker 2: are apparently secret. But the wells are right here next to.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: A public trail. For security reasons, the exact locations of
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the wells have not been made public. Local residents, however,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: believe it is the groundwater monitoring data that is being
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: kept from public view and are calling for greater transparency.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: We contacted ralpho comment more than a month ago. By
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: a time of publication, the company had not responded to
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: our request for drought expert Andreas Marx. The issue was
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: about a fundamental principle.
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  Speaker 3: By law, water is a public commodity. It can't be
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  Speaker 3: privately owned. I view, every decision made and every contract
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: signed over its use should be open to the public.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Another concern water prices aren't public either. What bull pay
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: for the seven million liters of groundwater they can extract
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: each day remains confidential that The.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: Question is what's a fair price and should an industrial
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  Speaker 3: company using water for cooling pay the same as a
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  Speaker 3: company that sells the water itself like a beverage producer.
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  Speaker 3: Germany lacks a national framework for this. Almonds that's on Puffinboland.
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  Speaker 1: But just how serious is the situation? Is the region
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  Speaker 1: already running out of.
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  Speaker 2: Water that We're not at the point of saying we're
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  Speaker 2: running out of water. We're in a transition phase.
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  Speaker 3: Germany and Brandenburg are still water rich regions. The challenge
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  Speaker 3: isn't adapting to permanent water scarcity. The challenges learning how
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  Speaker 3: to cope with dry periods that can last too or
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: even three years.
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  Speaker 1: Across Brandenburg, dry summers, less rainfall and increasing evaporation have
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: put growing pressure on water resources and with.
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  Speaker 3: That comes very low groundwater recharge, in other words, very
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  Speaker 3: little replenishment of our groundwater reserves. Since twenty eighteen, Germany
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  Speaker 3: has experienced widespread groundwater scarcity for the first time.
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  Speaker 2: That means the system is shifting. It's changing. In some areas,
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  Speaker 2: groundwater levels have fallen by as much as two meters
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  Speaker 2: over the past twenty years.
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  Speaker 1: Brandenburg gets ninety five percent of its drinking water from groundwater.
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  Speaker 1: The falling groundwater levels are also visible in many of
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Brantenbok's lakes, which are getting drier. Haiker Christov has lived
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: by Klana Koepinaze for more than thirty years. She spent
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: her childhood holidays here with her grandparents and has watched
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  Speaker 1: the lake change ever since.
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  Speaker 2: We used to sit on this chatty in winter, put
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  Speaker 2: on our ice skates and skate straight into the lake.
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  Speaker 2: Now you can see the water level has dropped by
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  Speaker 2: at least a meter and a half. And even though
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  Speaker 2: you can see the water here again, it's only twenty
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  Speaker 2: or thirty centimeters deep.
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  Speaker 1: The lake is mainly fed by groundwater. When groundwater levels fall,
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  Speaker 1: the lake's water levels fall as well, and the effects
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  Speaker 1: are already being felt when the Amphibian brutus.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Our Amphibian populations are collapsing.
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  Speaker 1: Were used to.
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  Speaker 2: Have toads, newts, snakes, most of them have disappeared and maybe.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: For good dower. At the same time, new industrial projects
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  Speaker 1: are raising questions about how much water Branton Book will
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: have left in the future. Just a few kilometers from Klanacopinazi,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Tesla has built its factory in the small town of Grunhyder,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: in an area already facing groundwater stress. Tesla's Giga factory
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  Speaker 1: has faced local opposition ever since it was first announced
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen. Manu Joya has been involved since the start.
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  Speaker 2: Many projects, including new schools and kindergartens, were put on
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  Speaker 2: hold because there wasn't enough water.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Tesla's water use has been controversial for years. The company
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: has been granted permission to use one point four million
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: cubic meters of water annually. Tesla plans to significantly expand
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: production at its green Headed factory, with the target of
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: producing up to seven thousand five vehicles per week. As
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: production expands, securing a reliable water supply for the site
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: becomes increasingly important. According to Tesla's twenty twenty five annual report,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: the company's water consumption has fallen significantly thanks to its
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: in house recycling system. We asked Tesla for comment. By
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the time of publication, the company had not responded. For
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  Speaker 1: many locals, it's no longer just about how much water
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  Speaker 1: is used. It's about who takes responsibility and who's asked
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  Speaker 1: to cut back as water becomes more scarce.
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  Speaker 3: Lying private water users are usually the first to face restrictions,
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  Speaker 3: simply because they're the easiest to limit. Industrial companies are
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  Speaker 3: rarely restricted because the economic consequences are much harder to assess.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: I'm in them. Many of these major projects are seen
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: as economically and strategically important. They create jobs, attract investment,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: and produce materials needed for the energy transition. That's what
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: makes the complex so difficult, because this kind of development
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: needs water too. The arrival of Tesla has further increased
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: demand for commercial and industrial land. According to Branton Book's
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Economic Development Agency, just twenty five kilometers from Tesla, another
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: major industrial project could soon take shape here and first invited.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: A vast industrial and business park is planned, covering an
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: area that would amount to more than a third of
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  Speaker 1: the city's entire built up area. Which companies will eventually
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  Speaker 1: move in remains completely unknown. To make way for it,
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  Speaker 1: around two hundred and fifty hectores of this forest, right
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  Speaker 1: next to the river spray, could be cleared. A citizen's
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  Speaker 1: initiative is campaigning against the plans, warning they could have
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  Speaker 1: far reaching consequences. The harm for islanding Angst.
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  Speaker 2: What weare most afraid of is climate change hitting this
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: region even harder. That could happen if we keep sacrificing
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  Speaker 2: our only protection against strout and water shortages for the
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: sake of industry.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: A basa mange Swunsne. Industrie of the forest consists largely
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: of pine monoculture. Even so, it plays an important role
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: in the region's water balance. Forests store water cooler surroundings
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: and help regulate the local water cycle. If this forest
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: were cleared, rain water could run off the surface much
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: more quickly. The forest soil would also lose its natural
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: filtering function. That's especially important because the river Spree is
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: a key source of Bullin's drinking water. Anyone who clears
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: forest in Branten Book is generally required to compensate for
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: the loss, but critics argue that a newly planeted forest
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: cannot replace a mature one that is already storing water,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: cooling the landscape, and filtering groundwater. The project remained largely unnoticed.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: It was only after citizens began campaigning against it that
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  Speaker 1: the plants came into the public eye.
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  Speaker 2: As Gab there were just two or three council resolutions
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: buried on an obscure municipal website. We had to dig
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: them up and then make sense of them. Other than that,
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  Speaker 2: there was nothing.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: For many residents, the project would be a reason to
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: leave the place they call home.
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  Speaker 3: Manis, If I knew this forest were going to disappear,
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  Speaker 3: if this industrial park were built here, I'd believe this
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  Speaker 3: place just wouldn't be worth living in anymore.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Further south in Brandon Book, another major project is raising concerns.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: A large copper mine is planned near the town of
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Spremberg over the coming decades. Copper is said to be
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: extracted from depth of up to one thousand meters. The
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: raw material is essential for power grids, electric vehicles and
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: the transition to clean energy, but manning operations could put
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  Speaker 1: drinking water supplies at risk. Geotechnical engineer Mitchell Atfeiffer explains why.
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  Speaker 3: You have to imagine that the layers of rock above
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: the copper deposit aren't uniform. It's not like a neatly
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: layered cake, fractured with cracks and fissures running through them.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: Water can seep through those fractures all the way down
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  Speaker 3: to the mine that mine. Water becomes heavily contaminated depending
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: on the rock formations it passes through. Above all, it's
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: highly saline and contains sulfur and various dissolved ions. Under
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: no circumstances can water like that simply be discharged into
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  Speaker 3: a river such as the spray.
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  Speaker 1: The plan is to treat the water before it is discharged.
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  Speaker 3: But the treatment plan proposed so far is nowhere near
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  Speaker 3: capable of doing what's actually required to clean the water
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  Speaker 3: to a standard where it could be safely discharged into
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  Speaker 3: the spray.
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  Speaker 1: The project could affect drinking water supplies all along the
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  Speaker 1: river spree, even as fast bullin the consequences of prioritizing
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  Speaker 1: industry of a drinking water can already be seen here.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: In Spremberg to enable Lichnat mining. Groundwater levels belowered as
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: a result iron which soil layers were exposed to oxygen.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: When groundworter levels rise again, iron hydroxide forms, turning sections
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: of the river Sbrie brown and affecting water quality to
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: this day. For many people here in Spremberg, it's a
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: warning from the past. They fear the plant copper mine
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: could leave behind a new problem.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: The open pit lignite mining dates back to the former
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: East Germany. At the time, it was seen as the
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: only viable way to generate electricity. People in this town
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: and across the region have lived with the consequences ever since.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: Current estimates suggest that this legacy will continue to affect
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: Schremberg until the end of this century.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Lignite mining in this region is said to end by
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: twenty thirty eight. Experts one that during dry summers, the
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: river Spree could then carry up to seventy five percent
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  Speaker 1: less water, with far reaching consequences for water resources all
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  Speaker 1: the way to Berlin. One reason is that once mining ends,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: the ground war that it has been pumped from the
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: open pit mines into the spray for decades will no
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: longer be available, and additional water will be needed in
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: the coming years to flat for more open pit mines
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: as part of their rehabilitation.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: Then, if copper mining is ultimately pursued for political reasons,
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: then we need a long term strategy to safeguard drinking
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: water supplies. But that strategy shouldn't come after the damage
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: is done. It has to be a prerequisite for approving
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: copper mining.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Here in Spremberg, whether from mining industry or climate change,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: pressure on brandon Books water is growing. The challenge is
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: making better use of the water that's already there. Fortunately,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: solutions already exist. Hydrogeologists Arena Englhat and her team are
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: researching how access water from rainy and snowy winters can
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: be stored underground as a reserve for dry periods.
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  Speaker 2: There are areas with particularly suitable geological conditions where excess
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: water can be recharged into the ground, either through infiltration
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: basins or injection well.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: One of these sites is located in Hobrestelde, Brandenburg. Through
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: these basins, treated wastewater is deliberately allowed to seep into
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: the ground. This helps replenish groundwater reserves and store water
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: for periods of drought. The process is known as artificial
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: groundwater recharge.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: We're taking advantage of the natural filtration that happens underground.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Microorganisms and clay particles help transform and purify the water
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: as it moves through the subsurface, so that it can
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: later be recovered in a very good quality.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Englehad and her team PEP already survey the entire Lowoshprie
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: region to identify where this approach could be implemented.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: There are areas in Brandenburg, such as the region where
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Tesla is now located, where artificial groundwater recharge could meet
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: almost the entire water demand of the local drinking water supplier.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: But according to Englhard, Germany's strict Federal Water Act currently
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: does not allow this method to be implemented on a
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: large scale.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: This method is especially suitable for non potable water uses,
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: whether in agricultural or industry, because it doesn't require the
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: same quality as drinking water.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Still, the approach has its limits limit you.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: One limitation is that the water we want to recharge
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: has to be available in the first place. That means
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: we need rivers or other forms of surface water with
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: sufficient flow to provide it.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: The challenge isn't just how much water is available It's
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: also about having clear rules for who gets water and
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: how much during periods of droughts, says Andreasmacs.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: To put the urgency into perspective, the term drought isn't
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: even defined in Germany's federal Water Act.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: What is being debated in Front and Book today is
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: part of a much larger global challenge. From Chile and
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Mexico to India, industries, agriculture, ecosystems, and communities are increasing
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: competing for a resource that is becoming ever more scarce.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Water