Overview
- On Friday, Sept. 25, NABU’s Berlin, Brandenburg and Saxony branches warned that the planned end of Lausitz lignite mining will cut the mine dewatering (Sümpfungswasser) that has fed the Spree for decades.
- The Spree showed pronounced low flows this summer, most visibly at the Spremberg reservoir, and NABU says climate change will make shortages worse.
- NABU calls for nature-based renaturation across the basin, including narrowing channel cross-sections, reconnecting floodplains, and abandoning artificial drainage ditches, with acceptance of temporary summer drying in some sections.
- Proposed technical fixes such as an Elbe-to-Spree water transfer remain under discussion but are contested because of high costs, landscape impacts and the Elbe’s own low flows this summer.
- The Spree’s dependence on pumped mine water stems from 150 years of straightening, deepening and widening; changing that will require coordinated policy by Berlin, Brandenburg and Saxony and will affect ecosystems, the Spreewald and urban water management in Berlin.