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Munich / Regensburg (dpa / lby) - Dry seasons in the summers as well as pollution from nitrate and pesticides are, according to the Greens parliamentary group in the Bavarian state parliament, with the greatest dangers for the groundwater and drinking water.
The party is using World Water Day (March 22) as an opportunity to address a catalog of demands to the state government.
Tenor: swiftly implement measures for preventive protection of the water.
Various professional groups - farmers, engineers, architects - also use World Water Day to advance projects and make an appeal to the population.
The environmental policy spokesman for the Greens, Christian Hierneis, warns, according to the announcement: Nitrate and pesticides have reached the groundwater, and an average of a fifth less groundwater has been replicated in Bavaria in recent years.
"We get three quarters of the drinking water in Bavaria from groundwater."
The Greens call on the state parliament to adopt a resolution that «due to the decline in new groundwater formation in recent years, increased measures for the protection of groundwater and drinking water in Bavaria must be taken and implemented».
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This included protection against overfertilization and pollution with pesticides and pharmaceutical residues as well as support for municipalities in the expansion of water retention infrastructure, so that, for example, rain water can be used instead of drinking water for flushing toilets and for irrigation systems.
In this context, he criticized the state government having announced in the state parliament six months ago that it wanted to promote water protection, "but six months later it seems to have forgotten it again."
Various industries have also taken up the cause of water protection.
The Bavarian Chamber of Architects, the Bavarian Chamber of Engineers, the Bavarian City and Municipal Association and the Association for Water Management, Sewage and Waste in Bavaria have come together to form an alliance.
According to the communication, they call on politics, industry, the construction sector and the population to be sensitive to water resources.
This included planning flood protection and water storage during settlement development and making areas water-permeable instead of sealing them.
In the Upper Palatinate, eleven water suppliers from the Regensburg, Burglengenfeld and Neumarkt region have voluntarily committed themselves, together with farmers, to cultivating land in a way that protects the groundwater and thus contributes to ensuring the quality of drinking water.
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“As a water supplier, we have a duty to protect water from negative influences and to take concrete measures together with practicing farmers, soil experts and hydrogeologists,” says Franz Herrler, chairman of the “Drinking water protection Upper Palatinate Jura” group.
In the future, pollution of drinking water by pollutants such as nitrate and pesticides should be reduced or even prevented as far as possible.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210321-99-907713 / 2
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