Amid increasing water scarcity in Germany, the Green party group in the Bundestag is pushing for stricter regulations regarding industrial consumers of water. According to faction leader Britta Haßelmann, extreme heat not only poses health risks to many people but is also pushing water supplies to their limits. She stressed that while cities and districts are already limiting water consumption, the current situation is unsustainable.
Haßelmann argues that private households should not be solely responsible for this burden; corporations must also take responsibility. Therefore, uniform rules for water extraction are long overdue. She insists that where a person lives should not determine how much water they are allowed to take or whether they have to pay for it. The fragmented system governing water law needs to be eliminated.
In a policy paper, Haßelmann, her deputy Julia Verlinden, and water policy spokesperson Steffi Lemke called on the federal government to make ensuring the public’s access to clean drinking water for daily needs the top priority. The authors wrote that industrial large-scale water extraction must therefore be limited in the event of scarcity. Julia Verlinden told the “Tagesspiegel” that the primacy of drinking water provision must be explicitly and clearly codified in the Water Management Act. “When water becomes scarce, it must be clear: drinking water for people takes precedence over the water consumption of profit-oriented corporations,” Verlinden stated.
The Green politicians are also advocating for stronger pricing mechanisms for water extraction because, currently, beverage manufacturers often pay nothing or very little for using water sources. Haßelmann and her colleagues called for the harmonization of water extraction fees nationwide. They argue that the impact should fall on major industrial users who have historically used groundwater at preferential prices or for free, rather than burdening private households further. To achieve this, the Greens want to establish a national minimum standard.
Furthermore, the Greens demand tighter control over groundwater pumping. They called for the establishment of a federal water registry. Anyone extracting a significant amount of water should also be required to continuously report groundwater and level data, enabling real-time monitoring.
