This winter is proving to be particularly dry in Germany - meaning that the country could be facing a shortage of drinking water. The low amount of groundwater also has a significant impact on the environment.

Germany is drying up

According to the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ), Germany is a lot drier this January when compared to last year. “There has been a significant water deficit building up in many regions in Germany, especially in the last three years,” said Dietrich Borchardt, the head of the UFZ Water Resources and Environment Research Unit. "But actually there have been deviations from the long-term average of the water balance there for several years."

The weather in Germany has been particularly dry over the last three winters and, as a result, the water level in dams, as well as rivers and other natural bodies of water, has fallen. The level of groundwater in Germany has also fallen, which can have a severe impact on the environment, especially to trees, and our access to water.

Groundwater levels are falling

Falling groundwater levels in Germany pose a significant threat, since around 70 percent of Germany’s drinking water is sourced from groundwater. Surveys from individual states have thrown up worrying results, with reports from Hesse stating: "At the end of December 2020, groundwater levels in Hesse were below average at 73 percent of the monitoring sites."

There are certain factors that have to be taken into consideration, however. The last survey that monitored ground levels was taken in 2015 and according to Jörg Rechenberg, head of the Water and Soil Division at the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), it is hard to find a direct connection between the dryness of the soil and groundwater levels.

Despite being some way off “water stress” in Germany, a situation which would see a 20 percent drop in Germany’s available water, Rechenberg stressed that changes to the country’s water management had to be made. "The past three dry years have shown that we have to deal with our water differently, otherwise we will soon find ourselves facing water stress,” he said.

Is Germany’s drinking water under threat?

Falling groundwater levels is not the only problem impacting Germany’s drinking water. Less rain means the levels in natural bodies of water, like rivers and lakes, is also falling. Aside from water supply shortages, when the amount of water in rivers drops, the concentration of pollutants, such as pesticides used by the agricultural industry and mining residues, increases. According to EU water quality standards, only 8 percent of rivers and streams in Germany are in good condition.

Three major water suppliers based in the Rhineland region have already appealed to EU agriculture ministers to limit the use of pesticides and other pollutants. They argue that, without changes, the standard of drinking water cannot be maintained.

Experts devise new water strategy

Back in 2018, the federal government launched an initiative that brought a team of 200 water management experts, including Borchardt and Rechenberg, to discuss how Germany could best deal with the problem. The government plans to implement their recommendations into a new water strategy that will be unveiled later this year.

The committee has highlighted the need for better water management and the better allocation of water, especially as supply falls. “We have to find a new way of dealing with increasingly scarce water in many areas: in agriculture and forestry, in the water-intensive energy industry, as well as in inland navigation or water management in cities," said Borchardt. They also called for a long-distance water network, which could be developed with the cooperation of water suppliers and their individual networks.