After the flood disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, the ex-president of the German Fire Brigade Association clearly criticized the federal and state governments.
In his opinion, years have been wasted.
Munich / Eifel - Could the extent of the flood catastrophe in Germany have been avoided?
Could more people have been saved from the severe storms and floods in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate?
These questions are not only being asked by people in the west of the Federal Republic.
Instead, they are puzzling over who may be responsible for the apparently failed civil protection.
Flood disaster and flood in West Germany: Responsibility for the federal and state governments?
One theory: The federal government and the federal states have let the local authorities down in preparation for a possible natural disaster.
This thesis has now been confirmed by Hartmut Ziebs, who was President of the German Fire Brigade Association from 2016 to 2019 and is a trained scaffolding worker.
So a practitioner, a craftsman.
“He wants to implement,” said Ziebs on Tuesday evening (July 20) in the
ZDF program
“Frontal” and took the criticized head of the Federal Office for Disaster Protection, Armin Schuster, under protection: “Then you have to let him . “The 62-year-old, himself a CDU politician, instead made clear allegations against politics.
“It was passed on to the municipalities and told: 'You have to do this,'” said Ziebs, referring to disaster control.
"We know where the weak points are, we just have to implement it."
In the video: Angela Merkel promises flood victims quick emergency aid
The Westphalian denied that enough had been done for disaster control.
“No, not in the last resort.
We need more prevention, we have to give the water space, ”he said and suggested, among other things, the construction of“ underground retention basins ”like in his hometown Schwelm, which had been“ spared from floods for years ”.
To classify: Schwelm is characterized by valleys and surrounded by slopes.
The protection against floods and floods like in the Eifel “cannot be guaranteed to the communities alone”, said CDU politician Ziebs and said: “Such floods will overtake us again and again if we do not take any measures.
Too little has been done for years.
Actually, the federal, state and local governments should do this together.
The citizens are the ones who suffer. "
Flood disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate: Great devastation in the Eifel
Of his politician colleagues in the federal government and in the countries of the local politicians who are candidates in his constituency a mandate after the election in 2021 demanded: "Finally get serious and protection of the population raise then, just as it is needed."
( pm)
