Tag: Water Shortages

 Munich’s First-Ever Green Party Mayor Declares First Ever City Water Use Restrictions… Fines Up to 50,000 €!

The Isar/Mangfall river gauge data shows no dramatic crisis — levels are stable/low-normal, not empty.

It’s Green politician-driven panic (Mayor Dominik Krause) and symbol politics to push climate agenda, restrict freedoms, or virtue-signal.

Munich has abundant high-quality groundwater; restrictions (pools, car washing, gardens, fountains) are overkill when drinking water isn’t threatened.

From NoTrickZone

By P Gosselin

Munich’s first ever water restrictions ever (by its first-ever Green mayor)… €50,000 fine if kids caught cooling themslves under a garden hose!

Real or feigned emergency?

Autowäsche, Gießen, Pools: München erlässt Verbote wegen Wassermangels | Regional | BILD.de

Germany’s online BILD reports on drastic water bans just implemented by the city of Munich due to what he dubiously claims to be “an ongoing water shortage.”

Following a dry winter and spring, Munich’s water supply is repoorted to be “under severe strain”. Potable water consumption has spiked to over 360 million liters (compared to the usual 300 million liters). Since voluntary appeals to the public to save water were unsuccessful, the city is now cracking down on wasteful Munich citizens.

The following bans are effective immediately, according to BILD:

    • Car washing is only allowed at professional commercial car washes.
    • Watering lawns is completely banned. Watering gardens, flower beds, and ornamental plants is only permitted overnight and in the early morning (between 7:00 PM and 9:00 AM)—unless a water-saving drip irrigation system is used.
    • Filling private pools (including small inflatable ones used by children), fountains, and water features is prohibited.
    • Pressure washers to clean private terraces, walls, streets, and roofs is banned.
    • Pumping water from public lakes, rivers, or streams is strictly forbidden.

The city of Munich is also cutting back on its own water usage, which includes shutting down ten public fountains.

Munich’s first water consumption restriction ever – by its first ever Green mayor

This is the first time in Munich’s history that the city administration has issued such an extensive public emergency decree (Allgemeinverfügung) restricting domestic water use.

The decision was officially enacted by the city administration, spearheaded by Munich’s Lord Mayor (Oberbürgermeister), Dominik Krause, alongside the city’s Department for Climate and Environmental Protection (Referat für Klima- und Umweltschutz). Dominik Krause belongs to the green political party Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Alliance 90/The Greens). He assumed office as the Lord Mayor of Munich on May 1, 2026, after winning the runoff election in March 2026, making him the city’s first-ever mayor from the Green party.

Fines of up to  €50,000 for violations

Violating these new regulations can result in fines of up to €50,000. The restrictions are currently set to remain in place until August 1, but could be extended if the situation does not improve.

Harsh criticism – needless drama

The draconian green water restrictions have been met with sharp criticism as Munichs’s water supply is claimed by others as not being acutely short. German blogger, Kolja Barghoorn here, for example, suspects the drastic water restriction measures are more about green drama-making and not a real water shortage.

At X, Thomas Woelfer shows that the water level from the city’s biggest source, the Mangfall, is at near normal levels — and is higher than it was last year at this time. Here is the water level since April 2025:

Water level: Current measured values Valley / Mangfall

“You can clearly see from the trend that the panic spread by the Green mayor is entirely justified,” writes Woelfer at X.

Kolja Barghoorn feels the restrictions have nothing to do with an actual crisis, and everything to do with wanting to create one in order to spread panic.

Barghoorn wonders if Munich’s emergency decree also bans the watering or wetting of construction sites and access roads to suppress dust, he mockingly suggesting that people should ask the local CSU (the Christian Social Union party in Munich) if they have “any leftover COVID masks”. The dust levels in the city are likely to be much higher than usual in the coming weeks due to the water rerstrictions.

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The 1975–1976 European drought (often called the “drought of the century” for Northwest/Central Europe) stands out as far more extreme than the current 2026 situation in Bavaria/Munich.

Quick Comparison

Aspect1976 Drought2026 Situation (Munich/Bavaria)
Scale & DurationMulti-year (started 1975), extreme summer heat/dryness across EuropeNotable dry winter/spring + hot summer, but shorter/less widespread so far
Impacts in GermanyVery low river levels, groundwater depletion, water supply threats, some rationing/emergency measuresConsumption spike (300M → 360-400M liters/day), reduced spring yields, restrictions on non-essential use — no broad rationing
Munich/IsarSevere low flows; major stress on water resourcesStable low-moderate gauge readings (~76-77 cm recently); strain on groundwater recharge but supply still secured
ResponseWidespread hosepipe bans, supply issues in placesTargeted bans (pools, gardens, fountains), fines; called “worst since early 1970s” by officials

1976 context:

It was brutal — persistent high pressure, minimal rain for months, scorching temperatures. Rivers like the Rhine and others hit record lows, inland shipping disrupted, agriculture hit hard, wildfires, and in parts of England/France/Germany public water supplies faced real limits (standpipes, cutoffs in rural areas). Germany wasn’t spared.

2026:

Real pressure exists (dry recharge period + demand), but it’s not at 1976 levels. Officials invoke the 1970s as the last comparable event, which supports your point — this is being treated as exceptional, yet historical precedent shows worse without today’s infrastructure.

Why the Difference in Reaction?

  • Modern systems (Sylvenstein reservoir on Isar, better groundwater management, protected sources) provide more buffer than in 1976.
  • Political style: Today’s response leans heavier on public alarm, symbolic actions, and citizen restrictions. 1976 was more about raw necessity.
  • Expectation bias: With climate discourse, every dry spell risks being framed as unprecedented or existential, even if data shows 1976 (and other years) were harsher.

2026 weather is manageable stress, not catastrophe.

The “woo cry” (early panic + aggressive rules) can feel disproportionate against deeper history.

Policy preferences have costs.

Aggressive environmentalism can mean tighter rules and less buffer when nature doesn’t cooperate.

Pro-growth, supply-focused approaches (more infrastructure, realistic extraction) tend to handle variability better but get labeled anti-climate.

Munich is testing one approach in real time.

Cambridge Rainfall Trends

I looked at this EA report the other day. As you may recall, the stats show that English summers are not getting drier.

However, it is worth seeing if there are any regional variations.

By Paul Homewood

I looked at this EA report the other day. As you may recall, the stats show that English summers are not getting drier.

However, it is worth seeing if there are any regional variations.

East Anglia is the driest part of the country, so what is going on there?

ECA&D offer a summary of the summer-half year, which is much more relevant and appropriate than a nominal June to August period.

Just as the England graph, there is no long-term trend and the most recent drought in 2022 was not unprecedented. The driest summer-half was in 1921.

While we’re at it, we can look at the other rainfall graphs for Cambridge.

I see nothing alarming in any of these charts:

Water Shortage? Blame It On Climate Change!!

Whatever the future holds, they are lying to you about “the impacts of climate change already being felt”.

Summer droughts are not getting more severe or common – on the contrary, the reverse is the case.

And on an annual basis, the English climate is wetter than it used to be.

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

h/t Ian Magness

The latest gaslighting from the Environment Agency:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/england-faces-5-billion-litre-public-water-shortage-by-2055-without-urgent-action

Naturally they blame the shortage partly on climate change:

Whatever the future holds, they are lying to you about “the impacts of climate change already being felt”.

Summer droughts are not getting more severe or common – on the contrary, the reverse is the case.

And on an annual basis, the English climate is wetter than it used to be.

Quite how they think they can get away with such bare-faced lies is a mystery. They clearly don’t want to put too much emphasis on mass immigration, which has forced up population numbers, even though they now assume population in England will rise by 8 million in the next thirty years.

But lying about climate change is now a stock in trade for government.

An FOI is on its way, demanding evidence for their false assertions!

Wrong, AfricaNews, Poor Resource Management, Not Climate, is Causing Water Shortages in Nigeria

AfricaNews (AN), in collaboration with the Associated Press, recently posted an article claiming that recent drought in Nigeria is due to climate change. This is unlikely to be the full story. Although data is sparse for the region, human activities are just as likely to be contributing to desertification as cycles of drought are.

From ClimateRealism

From ClimateRealism

AfricaNews (AN), in collaboration with the Associated Press, recently posted an article claiming that recent drought in Nigeria is due to climate change. This is unlikely to be the full story. Although data is sparse for the region, human activities are just as likely to be contributing to desertification as cycles of drought are.

The article, “Nigerian farmers struggle as climate change dries up water sources,” claims that climate change is the cause of recent drought in Nigeria, leading to crop declines. Surface water is becoming scarce during the dry seasons, so some farmers are forced to dig wells to irrigate their crops. AN writes that “[r]iverbeds have started to run dry,” and so the blame “is pointed firmly at climate change, with conservationists warning that food could become scarce if measures are not urgently put in place to help the farmers irrigate their land.”

While it is true that Nigeria has been suffering from extended drought, particularly in the northern part of the country, it is not clear that this is all or even mostly because of any human-caused climate change due to changing temperatures. Natural drought, combined with human error in land and water management, seems to be the more likely culprit.

According to the article, over 80 percent of Nigeria’s farmers are smallholder farmers, and they make up 90 percent of the nation’s crop production. The article points at maize (corn) as a sample crop that is suffering due to the water shortage, it “saw a decline in cultivated land from 6.2 million hectares in 2021 to 5.8 million hectares in 2022.”

Crop production data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) show that Nigeria’s corn production has been increasing over time. It actually shot upwards the most in recent decades, after remaining relatively flat through the 1980s. Between just 1990 and 2023, Nigerian corn production increased 91 percent, while yields increased 71 percent. (See figure below)

The dip in 2023 is attributed to recent drought related losses, but all crops everywhere in the world has good and bad seasons—sometimes multiple very bad seasons.

Nigeria is already a largely arid or semiarid country, and corn is a water hungry crop. More corn production necessarily means more water use. The population of Nigeria is also rocketing upwards, including and especially the number of not just humans but thirsty cattle, especially around the Lake Chad region, which AN notes has seen “dramatic” shrinkage. The lake, according to AN, shrunk 90 percent over the last few decades.

What AN neglects to mention, is that since the 1970s, the rivers that feed Lake Chad have also been dammed and diverted by other countries, causing a decrease in the amount of water that can enter the basin. AN mentions that there has been significant loss of trees in the state of Sokoto, which “contributes to rising temperatures,” but neglects to say why those trees were lost. The framing of the story makes it seem like those trees are gone due to climate related desertification, but this is not the case. These trees were cleared for rapidly expanding agriculture. The reason this is significant, is that deforestation is known to reduce precipitation and greatly reduces the ability for soil to hold moisture.

Any drought or decrease in precipitation, under these conditions, would certainly lead to widespread water shortages, especially for an increasing population. Drought has always been an issue for West Africa, and particularly for northern Nigeria, which has seen repeated devastating droughts over the last century, including in the 1910s, 1940s, 1970s, 1990s, and recent years.

Still, Nigeria’s GDP has been rising even amid all of these issues, growing at about 3 percent per year. Their economy is heavily reliant on oil exports – which ironically, climate alarmists would see destroyed to purportedly “save” Nigeria from climate change.

Nigeria’s weather conditions are unlikely to be unprecedented, but mismanagement of the land amid a booming population can quickly destabilize what resources the nation has. Climate change does not have to play a major role for water shortages to occur. AfricaNews seems to have missed the most likely direct causes of water problems in Nigeria, which are resource management related.