Lower thirds:

0:03  Report by / Luisa von Richthofen
0:26  Dietrich Borchardt /Aquatic ecosystem researcher
2:13  Dietrich Borchardt / Aquatic ecosystem researcher

Script:

Filling private pools.  

Watering the garden in the afternoon.  

Or washing your car in the driveway.  

It’s all currently restricted in Munich – because of a water shortage!  

Violating the rules can be punished with  fines of up to 50,000 euros. 

Around 80 municipalities in Germany have implemented water usage restrictions this summer.  

But wait, isn’t Germany among Europe's rainier countries? 

+++ SOT Dietrich Borchardt, Aquatic ecosystem researcher +++   

00:00:08 We have a significant dry season in Germany at the moment combined with heat waves —  one in June, one coming up, and this together caused significant impacts on the water cycle.+++   

Like elsewhere in Europe, extreme weather is changing Germany’s water cycle.  

Long droughts and heatwaves, then sudden, intense rain.  

The soil can't absorb it fast enough.  

And when water is needed, it isn't there.  

+++ SOT Dietrich Borchardt, Aquatic ecosystem researcher  

In winter time, for example, here in southern Europe and Germany typically is the water abundant season. 00:02:42  This was not the case this winter.+++ 

In some regions, groundwater levels have fallen so low that authorities are concerned about drinking water supplies.  

But households are not even the biggest users. 

+++ SOT Dietrich Borchardt, Aquatic ecosystem researcher +++   

00:05:48  It is still the energy sector which 00:05:52  consumes or I would say uses water, the most portion of the water, it's still the cooling capacity +++ 

An average German uses about 130 liters per day.  

Low if you compare it to the US’s 310 liters per day, average on a European scale. But by global standards it is still a lot. 
 
So, what else can be done to save water? 

First, Germany's government now wants people to be able to recognize looming water shortages early.  

This month it launched a national platform called NIWIS. It maps in real time where rivers and groundwater are running low. 

Germany’s environment minister says the platform should also make water restrictions easier to accept. 

Experts also say the country must design its cities better. 

+++ SOT Dietrich Borchardt +++ 
00:15:40 It's a good idea to follow a strategy to store much more of the excess water from these short-term events. 

+++ 

That means less asphalt and more nature.  

One solution could be covering the roofs of buildings with vegetation that acts as its own storm-water management system. - 

And a change in mentality.  

+++ SOT Dietrich Borchardt 
00:03:27 We have to anticipate that this situation is a new normal coming along with climate change.+++ 

With yet another heatwave already on its way in Germany, restrictions like Munich’s may soon be less the exception - and more the rule.