For years, Petra Liesenfeld has witnessed falling groundwater levels in her hometown of Baruth. She has to water her garden far more often than she used to, and has seen some local trees completely dry out. At the same time, two beverage companies are looking to expand production in the area.
Mineral water has been bottled in the small town of Baruth, which lies around 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Berlin, since the 1990s. The site is now run by Red Bull and Austrian beverage producer Rauch, who are planning a new canning factory and additional facilities. All in the middle of a water protection area.
The Baruth waterworks are licensed to extract a fixed amount of groundwater each year, just 8% of which goes to supply the town's roughly 4,300 residents with drinking water. The remaining 92% is reserved for Red Bull and Rauch, and is enough to cover the drinking water needs of 57,000 people. But exactly how much water the companies currently use is not made public.
How much Red Bull and Rauch pay for the daily 7 million liters of permitted groundwater is confidentialImage: DW
This is legal under the existing contracts, said Peter Ilk, who until recently was the town's mayor and is considered a driving force behind the region's industrialization. He sees no problem with the way water is managed.
