Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - Almost a year after the devastating floods in North Rhine-Westphalia, the state approved around 1.6 billion euros in reconstruction aid for municipalities and private households. This was announced by Municipal Minister Ina Scharrenbach (CDU) on Wednesday in Düsseldorf.
More than 18,800 applications have so far been made by affected citizens. Of these, 94 percent were checked or approved. Around 493.4 million euros are now being paid out to private households. According to the information, the processing time for private applications in the past three months was around nine days on average.
According to Scharrenbach, more than 740 million euros have been approved for reconstruction plans by the municipalities. The funds would be used to rebuild day care centers, fire stations, schools, roads and bridges. Almost 163 million euros were also approved for church or other sponsors of educational, cultural or sports facilities. This can be used to rebuild club houses, sports fields or even hospitals. There is also aid for agriculture and the economy.
"We are making really good progress in NRW with the reconstruction," said Scharrenbach. "It was a tour de force, and it still is today." In the flood disaster in mid-July 2021, 49 people died in NRW alone. Tens of thousands of people in almost half of all municipalities in the most populous federal state were affected. The federal and state governments provided a total of around 12.3 billion euros for reconstruction. The NRW state government started the application process for reconstruction a week after the disaster.
