- Green: Bavaria's flood protection must also help Austria
Bavaria's flood protection, in the view of the Greens, has not sufficiently considered the risks in the neighboring country of Austria. From the Austrian perspective, it's mainly about Bavaria taking measures that reduce the flood risk for residents downstream and create more floodplains, said Stefan Kaineder, provincial councilor for the environment and climate protection and provincial spokesman for the Greens in Upper Austria in Passau. Together with Upper Austria's Governor Thomas Stelzer (ÖVP), he approached Bavaria's Minister-President Markus Söder (CSU) with this request in July.
"For too long, we have forced rivers and streams into narrow corsets. Experience has taught us that this is the wrong way, and we must give them back their naturalness," Kaineder emphasized. This has ecological advantages for flora and fauna, and a renaturalized river with enough space is also an effective flood protection.
"Bavaria must finally do more on the topic of flood protection. We must think about technical and ecological flood protection together, it needs more money, more personnel, and more speed if we want to effectively protect the citizens from future heavy rain events," said Green parliamentary group leader Katharina Schulze.
It is the responsibility of the state government to protect the people, their homes, and property - and when it comes to border regions, also in close coordination with Bavaria's neighboring countries. "It is intolerable that the delay or lack of sufficient flood protection measures on the Bavarian side can have a negative impact on the flood situation in Austria."
Specifically, the Greens from Bavaria and Upper Austria demand more water retention measures, more space for rivers and streams, a doubling of the Bavarian flood protection budget, the de-sealing of concreted areas, renaturations, and more personnel in the water management offices in a joint six-point paper.
The Greens in Bavaria and Upper Austria have advocated for more water retention measures and more space for rivers, recognizing that renaturalized rivers with sufficient space can serve as effective flood protection. They also demanded a doubling of the Bavarian flood protection budget, more personnel in water management offices, and the de-sealing of concreted areas to improve flood protection, as delays or insufficient measures in Bavaria could negatively impact flood situations in Austria.
