No. 111/05
Berlin, 9 May 2005

New Flood Control Act enters into force

Preventive flood protection is improved significantly

The new Flood Control Act initiated by Federal Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin will enter into force tomorrow. "With this Act, flood protection in Germany is set on a new basis and will improve significantly," Trittin explained. For the first time, the Flood Control Act lays down uniform and stringent legal provisions for the prevention of flood damage on a nationwide level. The Act is based on the Five-Point Programme which was presented by the German government immediately after the flood disaster of the Elbe river in the summer of 2002. This catastrophe alone claimed 21 lives in Germany and caused property damages of more than 10 billion euro.

In March, the Bundestag and the Bundesrat approved a compromise proposal submitted by the Mediation Committee. Under the new Act the Länder are obligated to designate more areas as flood plains than before. Waters and water segments have to be identified, along which flood plains have to be designated due to the risk of flood damage. The Länder are obligated to inform the general public about their decisions. For areas with a high potential of damage flood plains have to be designated within five years, the flood plains in flood-prone areas have to be designated within seven years. The public has to be included in this process. The basis for designating flood plains is the so called 100-year flood, an event that statistically occurs every 100 years.

When the Act enters into force tomorrow, it will be the first time that planning new housing areas in flood plains is prohibited by federal law. No new buildings may be planned in these areas. Exceptions are possible if nine closely defined requirements are met, all of which have to be fulfilled completely in every individual case. They include that the municipality concerned has no alternative for human settlement development, that no lives are at risk and no significant property damage is to be expected and that the structure of new buildings is adapted to flood events. "Especially in the construction sector, we should not knowingly create new damage potential along the water bodies", Environment Minister Trittin stressed. Also, oil heating systems in flood plains have to be constructed in a flood-proof way or they have to be backfitted.

The installation of new oil heating systems may be prohibited if possible damages are too severe. In case of agricultural land use the Länder have to take care that soil erosion and pollution of water bodies are prevented or reduced.

If no flood protection plans exist, the Länder have to draw up plans co-ordinating flood protection along the rivers within four years. These plans have to be based on a 100-year flood as well. In the process of developing these plans, the interests of upstream and downstream riparians of a water body may be co-ordinated.

In addition to flood plains the Länder have to designate flood-prone zones. This is done to raise awareness among the general public and the development planning authorities concerning the flood risk of areas behind dykes. Trittin: "Even dykes do not provide an absolute protection against floods, as more than 200 dyke failures proofed during the flood disaster in the Elbe river basin." Flood plains and flood-prone zones have to be marked in spatial plans, land use plans and development plans. This measure is intended to point to the danger of flooding at an early stage.

Please note: further information on flood protection, including the wording of the Act, is available here.