German water supply threatened as climate change boosts droughts

Stefan Nicola in Bloomberg News: German water supplies will become increasingly threatened this century as climate change raises the risk of droughts and water shortages in the country.

While Germany is considered water-rich, more water evaporates than falls as rain in the eastern part of the country, according to a report by a German parliamentary committee. Average temperatures may rise 3.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, resulting in more precipitation in the winter and less in the summer, the authors wrote.

“This will worsen the already unfavorable water balance in eastern Germany, which will further increase
the risk for droughts and a generally worse water availability,” they wrote. Temperature increases in southern Germany will also threaten water supplies and as a result “biodiversity, and availability of snow in ski resorts.”....

Feed of river power plant Speichersee, Aschheim near Munich, Germany, shot by Richard Bartz, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license