Schleiden (dpa/lnw) - The Ministry of the Environment and the opposition in North Rhine-Westphalia are still divided on the status of the expansion of flood protection. While Environment Minister Oliver Krischer (Greens) saw the state government in the plan at an on-site visit in the flood area on Wednesday, SPD MP René Schneider criticized that the expansion and renovation of the level measuring network was progressing slowly.
During the visit to Gemünd, a district of Schleiden in the Eifel region affected by the 2021 flood, Krischer said the aim was to expand and optimize the existing level measurement network. He also referred to the "rapid repair" of destroyed levels and to newly created positions at the State Office for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection in North Rhine-Westphalia, which would be used primarily for flood forecasting.
"The environmental minister's balance sheet so far cannot be improved even by beautiful pictures in the Eifel," criticized Schneider. The visit is a "photo appointment", the flood protection in NRW is no better than the disaster in the summer of 2021. Existing measuring points have not been repaired for a long time, and there are also no new measuring points and the points are not networked with each other. It could also happen that there is not enough money for the expansion in the end because the state government does not provide a separate budget item for this.
