German environment minister calls for water management rethink

Germany needs to rethink water management in light of this year's drought, Environment Minister Carsten Schneider has said.

 "The days when we in Germany didn't have to worry about water are definitively over. Germany needs a different approach to water," Schneider told the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper in remarks published on Sunday.

Germany, along with most countries in Western Europe, has experienced a summer of record temperatures and several punishing heatwaves.

Low water levels on the Rhine and other German rivers have caused significant disruption to the economy in recent months, with shipping of key materials becoming impossible. 

Schneider said draining and diverting water had been policy for centuries.

"Today, the goal is to retain water in the landscape as effectively as possible."

Restoring wetlands, rivers and forests could help secure water sources, he said. Infrastructure also needed to be modernized.

The federal government made €100 billion ($114 billion) available to states and local authorities from a special infrastructure fund at the start of this legislative term.

"The states would be well advised to invest a significant portion of the funds from the special fund in water infrastructure," he said.