The flood disaster in July 2021 in the Ahr Valley prompted the affected district of Ahrweiler and its municipalities to establish the Water Management Association (GZV) LK Ahrweiler with the aim of jointly strengthening regional flood prevention measures. In addition to traditional protective measures, this also includes flood-adapted watercourse maintenance and development. The FiW supported this process in cooperation with the Association of Municipalities and Cities of Rhineland-Palatinate (GStB) on behalf of the Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, and Mobility (MKUEM) and developed the financing system for the association within this framework.
The founding of the GZV Landkreis Ahrweiler marks an important step for intermunicipal cooperation in water management and flood prevention in the district—a task whose urgency became particularly clear during the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley in 2021. Once successfully established, the association will take on key tasks in the areas of flood prevention and protection as well as waterway maintenance in the district. In cooperation with the Association of Municipalities and Cities and Kommunalberatung RLP, FiW supported the founding process by developing financing formulas for these two areas of responsibility. In addition, the FiW also developed a blueprint for financing systems that can serve as a model for the establishment of further water management associations in Rhineland-Palatinate in the future.
Since the construction, operation, and maintenance of measures, especially those relating to technical, regional flood protection, can only be carried out efficiently through catchment-oriented and inter-municipal cooperation, solidarity-based financing is essential. Both downstream and upstream residents must be equally involved in this process. Based on the provisions of the Water Resources Act and the Land Water Act, a modular financing system was therefore developed that provides for two separate financing models: one for watercourse maintenance and one for flood prevention, flood protection, and flood-preventive watercourse development.
The indicators chosen in the financing models are based on the basic principles of financing public tasks – the equivalence principle, the polluter-pays principle, the probability scale, and the principle of benefit and hardship. For watercourse maintenance, the indicators used to calculate the cost allocation are bank length and discharge, while for flood prevention/protection, the indicators used are discharge and the potential damage caused by an extreme flood event.
The establishment of the association is intended to create an intermunicipal community that will have an impact throughout Rhineland-Palatinate and show how water development and flood prevention can be organized efficiently, in a spirit of solidarity and across municipalities in the context of climate change.