Low levels - and fuel is also scarce: A panoramic view of Bavaria

Created: 08/17/2022Updated: 08/17/2022 10:24 am

By: Carina Zimniok, Dirk Walter

The Isar in Munich also carries very little water.

© Ulrich Wagner/Imago

Bavaria makes the drought and the lack of fuel difficult to create.

Rivers and lakes are dangerously low and fish are threatened.

Gas stations no longer get fuel

Lukas Wolf has leased a Total gas station in Parsdorf, in the Ebersberg district, for two years.

Normally he doesn't bother about the filling levels of his tanks - if a refill is needed, this is automatically reported to the supplier, and the tanker truck comes.

But things are different at the moment: Wolf regularly runs out of petrol and diesel.

"We haven't had anything like that before," says Wolf.

He put up a big sign to let customers know.

Nevertheless, many react surprised and a little angry when they have to continue driving with an almost empty tank.

"I hope they see that we're not the only ones with this problem," says Wolf.

In fact, other gas stations in the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen or Weilheim-Schongau districts are also reporting bottlenecks.

Why is it?

Dryness is also an important point here.

The "Fuels and Energy" association, which represents the tank giants Esso, Jet, OMV and Shell, explains that due to the persistent low water in the Rhine, only a third of the usual amount of mineral oil can be transported.

"We do not expect an improvement until the end of the third quarter," the association said on request.

Rivers and lakes are dangerously low

The low water situation in Bavaria is getting worse.

Some levels of smaller rivers have new record lows, such as the Altmühl near Treuchtlingen or the Rott near Ruhstorf in Lower Bavaria.

It also looks threatening in places on the Amper - near Fürstenfeldbruck it only has 30 centimeters of water in places.

The outflow is currently 7.4 cubic meters per second - two weeks ago it was almost twice as much.

The drought has left its mark on the Sylvenstein reservoir, which regulates the water level of the Isar beyond Munich.

Yesterday at noon, the level was 745.46 meters above sea level – that is 4.5 meters below the summer traffic jam target of 750 meters.

In a week the water level has dropped a meter.

At the moment, twice as much water flows out into the Lower Isar as is fed in above.

But the Weilheim Water Management Office, which manages the storage facility, is not in a mood of panic.

"It's not that wild yet," says the head of the authority, Korbinian Zanker.

The storage tank can be lowered another nine meters down to 736.40 meters.

"If the conditions remain the same, there will be enough water for another 33 days," says Andrea Kröner, the reservoir's operations officer.

The following figures also show how gigantic the dimensions of the reservoir built in the 1950s are: if the reservoir is lowered to the limit of 736.4 meters, it will still have four million cubic meters of water.

At the moment, however, it is 15 million cubic meters more, i.e. 19 million cubic meters of water.

Groundwater levels are also alarmingly low.

According to the State Office for the Environment, most measuring points in southern Bavaria are well below the level that is usual for this time of year.

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Rescue: Boats cannot be lowered into the water

The Wasserwacht-Bayern observes increasing problems due to the low level: "Particularly large motor lifeboats are more difficult to get into the water," they say.

On many waters, the boats have to be lowered into the water at other points.

In an emergency, the water rescue service uses motor-driven rubber dinghies.

But even in the water itself you have to drive with more caution, as there is also the danger of touching down.

The DLRG reports similar problems.

Fish and mussels get stressed, plants thrive

The cool nights of the past few days have provided some relaxation - but many rivers and lakes in Bavaria are too warm.

And some streams have dried up completely.

"It's dramatic there," says Udo Steinhoerster from the Upper Bavaria Fishing Association.

If these waters were not looked after by fishing associations, the animals would perish - this is how the fish are moved in many places.

Fortunately, in the large lakes, the fish can still move to deeper, cooler areas.

There is still enough water for the fish in the larger rivers Isar, Inn and Lech.

According to the State Office for the Environment, the situation of the Upper Franconian freshwater pearl mussel is worrying - some stocks have already been converted.

The development of large stocks of aquatic plants, which also benefit from the slower flow in rivers, is striking.

And because the sun heats up the lakes, a particularly large number of algae form.