Protection Of Rivers, Lakes And Seas : Germany

Major improvements have also been achieved in protecting rivers, lakes and seas through the introduction of tougher legislation on the discharge of waste water and the construction of new, especially biological, sewage treatment facilities by industrial firms and municipalities. These regulations were designed to prevent organic pollution of surface waters in particular. In the early 1970s, heavily polluted rivers like the Rhine and the Main had suffered a drastic decline in the diversity of species they contained, but today, as a result of improvements in water quality, they once again have nearly as many species as they did in the 1920s.

However, many of the rivers and lakes in the new federal states - despite noticeable improvements - still need further cleansing. The Waste Water Charges Act has played a key role in the protection of rivers and lakes by spurring municipalities and industry to sharply reduce pollutants and nutrients in waste water. There is still much work to be done to reduce water pollution caused by inputs of nutrients, especially those stemming from crop fertilization, and of poorly degradable plant protection agents. An important step towards reducing nutrient inputs from agricultural operations was the adoption of the Fertilizer Ordinance, which since January 1996 has more closely defined the principles of “good agricultural practice” in fertilization.

In respect of plant protection agents, the Federal Government’s objective is to maintain the high standards which have long governed their approval in Germany at the European level as well now that the European Court of Justice has struck down the 1994 Council Directive concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market. The EG Drinking Water Directive which has been in effect since 1986 is presently being revised to reflect more recent scientific findings concerning the protection of human health. The limit value for lead content, for example, has been made more stringent.

Many pollutants and nutrients are ultimately carried by the wind and the rivers into the seas. Shipping and oil extraction, too, contribute to pollution of the seas, and fisheries are impairing the marine environment to an ever greater degree. These problems can only be solved by joint action on the part of all states. Steps to further drastically reduce the discharge of pollutants and nutrients into the North Sea were resolved, on Germany’s initiative, most recently in 1995 at the 4th International Conference on the Protection of the North Sea. As a result of the resolutions of previous North Sea conferences, all countries have meanwhile stopped discharging industrial waste and burning waste at sea.

in 1974 the littoral states of the Baltic Sea formed the Helsinki Commission on the Protection of the Baltic Sea. In 1992 it adopted an “International Action Program on the Baltic Sea” aimed at removing the main sources of pollution within the next twenty years.