Indications of recent warm and dry summers' impact on private wells for drinking-water supply in Germany: a review of press articles

Abstract

Climatic changes lead to seasonal droughts with declining groundwater levels, and – especially in rural regions – private wells in the upper aquifer might fall dry. However, only limited information and no systematic administrative reporting of the extent are available for Germany yet. Therefore, a systematic analysis of newspaper articles as a promising source of information was conducted for the extraordinarily hot summers of 2018, 2019 and 2020. The results of the databases' search were analysed with respect to frequency and local and regional hotspots, relations to climatic data, extent of the reported dry-fallings and emergency water supply. The analysis indicates hotspots particularly for the federal states of Saxony, where a subsidy programme for connecting to the public water supply was reissued in 2019, for Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia. Emergency supply was realised through various approaches. It was partly required until the winter months and did not always have drinking-water quality. As private wells are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, their operators should be involved as a stakeholder group in future discussions about allocating water resources to increasingly competing uses in periods of scarcity.

Cross-sectoral impacts of the 2018–2019 Central European drought and climate resilience in the German part of the Elbe River basin

“…The village of Harsefeld, approximately 25 km west of Hamburg, was confronted with pipe pressure breakdowns in the summers of 2018–2020. Rickert et al ( 2022 ) searched German press reports about private wells running dry in the years 2018–2020: 115 respective news items were found of which 44 referred to locations in Saxony.…”

“…Schuldt et al 2020 ; Obladen et al 2021 ) or vegetation in general (Bastos et al 2021 ), with many assessments involving remote sensing (Reinermann et al 2019 ; Buras et al 2020 ; Ahmed et al 2021 ; Kowalski et al 2022 ). A review of media articles researching the drought impact on drinking water supply from private wells in Germany was also conducted (Rickert et al 2022 ).…”

Worldwide Surveillance Actions and Initiatives of Drinking Water Quality: A Scoping Review

“…Changes in rainfall impact water quality (i.e., increased rainfalls may overload domestic and industrial sewage collection systems), leading to the disposal of raw sewage into water courses and increasing the risk of contamination by pathogens. Alternatively, droughts may increase the salinity of the soil and freshwater sources, decreasing the dilution of pollutants [8] and, consequently, groundwater formation and water supply for part of the population [80]. Thus, climate variables (e.g., precipitation, humidity, evaporation, and temperature) may contribute to outbreaks of diarrheal diseases [81], which may mostly affect children below five during very dry and hot seasons or high humidity [82].…”

Worldwide Surveillance Actions and Initiatives of Drinking Water Quality: A Scoping Review

“…It is known that changes in rainfall impact water quality (i.e., increased rainfalls may overload domestic and industrial sewage collection systems), leading to the disposal of raw sewage into water courses and increasing the risk of contamination by pathogens. Alternatively, droughts may increase the salinity of the soil and freshwater sources, decreasing the dilution of pollutants [8] and, consequently, groundwater formation and water supply for part of the population [79]. Thus, climate variables (e.g., precipitation, humidity, evaporation, and temperature) may contribute to outbreaks of diarrheal diseases [80], which may mostly affect children below five during very dry, hot, humid seasons [81].…”