The Environment

In August 2002 pictures of Dresden went around the world. The Zwinger, the Semper Opera, the Albertinum, and the main railway station were flooded by the Elbe which rose by 9.4 metres to reach the highest level ever recorded. A quarter of the urban area, some 50 square kilometres, was under water. Saxony, Saxony-Anstalt, and Lower Saxony – and Bavaria and Thuringia too – experienced a natural catastrophe of unprecedented dimensions.

Within a month a law regulating reconstruction was in force. The federal and Laender authorities each provided three and a half billion euros so that Saxony alone received 510 million. This money flowed into the rebuilding of roads, bridges, the water-supply system, and also the renovation of schools, kindergartens, hospitals, and cultural facilities. So Dresden was able to open its doors again impressively quickly. In September the Albertinum was showing paintings once more; at the beginning of November the Semper Opera presented "Swan Lake"; and a few weeks later the Old Masters in the Zwinger could again be admired.

Plans for Protection against Floods

Catastrophes like the one in Dresden can happen frequently in Germany. Many German cities – such as Passau, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Bonn, and Hamburg – have rivers which overflow their banks several times a year. Each of them has a plan for protection against floods with water-levels being linked with alarm-measures and pre-ordained action. Thus in Bonn when the Rhine rises above seven metres the first streets are closed and several bus-stops are transferred elsewhere. At eight metres shipping is brought to a stop and twenty centimetres later the first emergency unit goes to work. Apart from such local flood protection cities and states also initiate joint action. States along the Rhine thus drew up a "Flood Action Plan", making available over 12 billion euros for reclamation of some of the longest German river’s flood areas as well as making people living on its banks more aware of the dangers.

Dresden also wants to protect itself better after the dramatic experiences of 2002, providing more relief areas for the Elbe than were envisaged in the regulations implemented two years previously. These regulations protect land where there is only a statistical likelihood of floods once a century, allowing this to be flooded and flowed through when rivers rise. In addition Dresden, like most riparian cities, offers its citizens the possibility of getting information about the current water-level, and provides by way of telephone hot-lines, the internet, and radio tips about what to do in case of emergencies.

Sustainable Environmental and River Policies

Over the longer term all cities must provide for combatting floods with responsible and sustainable environmental and river policies. These begin in the hinterland rather than with the construction of dikes and walls. They leave rivers their natural courses and water meadows, renounce further expansion and straightening, and support measures for protection of the climate. After all it is global warming that sparks off rain and makes water-levels rise. Dresden’s Mayor, Ingolf Roßberg, thus declares: "The experts may argue about whether such floods could occur every hundred, five hundred, or thousand years. But it must be clear to us that we have to strengthen our commitment to communal protective measures. This catastrophe has shown us that we must once again become more aware of protection of the environment. Let us all commit ourselves jointly and more strongly to the local Agenda 21 process. Protection against global warming begins at home".