Baden-Württemberg
Landtag, Plenarprotokoll 17/18, pp. 875-877.
Right
honorable Herr President. Right honorable colleagues.
In my speech,
I seek your consent for the promotion of rainwater use installations [Regenwassernutzungsanlagen]. I will in
the following explain what the problem is and why these installations are in
part a solution. Should you have any questions as to my speech, I would be
happy to be permitted to answer them.
After three
hot, dry summers, we subsequently just had a couple of stormy months with heavy
rains and flooding – even here directly in front of the Landtag. If the
scientific prognoses prove correct, these weather events could soon be the rule
and no longer the exception.
Andreas Deuschle (CDU) and Thomas
Poreski (Greens): And so climate change!
Bernd Gögel (AfD): That is not disputed!
Bund and
State are already working on a water strategy which will deal with the
consequences of heavy rains and periods of drought. Before we reach a solution
to these problems, we should yet peruse a few essentials.
Water is the
basis of life. Not for nothing is the Earth named the blue planet. Water is the
most precious thing we have.
…
In regards
water, in contrast to the climate, we are not dependent on foreign countries.
If Saudi princes think they need to install giant, artificial show gardens in
the middle of the desert, then that perhaps is bad for Saudi Arabia’s water
supply, but not for us.
Therefore,
let us in common make our homeland weather-proof. Support that we here in the
southwest bring about a solid promotion of rainwater use installations.
The principle
of these installations is as simple as it is effective. Rainwater which hits
the roof surface no longer trickles away unused but will be caught, filtered
and stored in underground containers, so-called cisterns. These installations
thus have alike a double use. By means of added storage capacity, the consequences
of storms and heavy rains will clearly be ameliorated. And in drought periods,
sufficient water is then still at hand. Thus may the garden be watered, the
toilets flushed and even the washing machine operated. The fire department has
an additional source of quenching water and, before all, we thereby save no end
of costly drinking water.
Yet that is
not enough. When more people have rainwater use installations in their homes,
then fewer retention basins will be required and then the canalization will be
facilitated. Local communities which now already work at their limit of
capacity would no longer be forced to build and maintain this infrastructure on
the same scale. Thus are rainwater use installations the optimal answer to
climate change. They put us in the position to stop the injurious masses of
water during flooding and the conversion to costly substitute drinking water
during times of drought.
Rainwater use
installations are a return investment in the future. If one considers how much
savings they make possible – less consumption of drinking water, less required
infrastructure, relief of purification installations – then one recognizes:
These installations are definitely worth being promoted. The uses for the
general public far exceed the investment costs and that is only the financial
aspect.
…
However, in
regards the implementation, one thing for me is quite especially important. Already,
the people no longer find affordable housing in the cities. Let us prevent that
we simply attach the rainwater use installations to the anyway already existing
wish list for new construction.
You know what
I’m talking about. Building insulation, solar cells and roof vegetation. If we
now also increase the expense of construction in the country, where will the
people live? With this motion, we now have the opportunity to take care that
all are able to profit therefrom: The homeowner, the renter, the local
communities, the insurers and – with the avoidance of flood damages – the entire
country. Here it is a matter of adapting, with a good eye and factual
understanding, to the actual situation of the locality, which is possible and,
before all, sensible.
…
Basically, we
stand before the question, How do we want in the future to shape the roofs? How
do we want to use the surface? For rainwater use installations or for solar
energy? It is all the same whether photovoltaic or solar thermal: This allows combining
all with one another without a problem. The water still flows off the roof
surface and will be captured.
Finally, I
arrive at the second part of our motion. Because less water will be consumed,
some local communities, on the basis of particular relations with the water
works associations, have as a result financial disadvantages. In clear text:
Local communities which save water pay for that. That is rubbish and urgently
needs to be changed. The increased costs need then be necessarily shifted to
the citizens, and those who possess no rainwater use installations will then be
financially disadvantaged.
Let us in
common build infrastructure secured for the crises of the coming decades. For
as we know since “William Tell”: The wise man takes precautions.
…
This time,
jump over your shadows, show some backbone and vote for the AfD’s motion [Drucksache 17/748], as we
also ever again vote for your motions, because it is about the interests of the
citizens and not those of the politicians. Here and now you have the
opportunity to demonstrate that you are ready to place the welfare of the
country and its citizens above party interests.
Udo Stein (AfD): They would then need to resign!
[trans: tem]
