Flood examination committee in NRW: Minister under pressure!

Flood examination committee in NRW: Minister under pressure!

On February 12, 2025, the flood examination committee on the subject of flood disaster, which took place in July 2021, will continue in the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament. On this day, the Minister of Building and Local Minister Ina Scharrenbach (CDU) will be invited to the committee as the last witness. These last hearings are part of a process that takes place three years after the devastating flood, in which 49 people died and damage of 13 billion euros in NRW. The final report of the committee of inquiry is to be published until the upcoming summer break, while the current design can already come up with around 450 pages. The committee was originally planned for 2023, but the first committee, which began in October 2021, was reissued after the 2022 state election, which was due to multiple delays.

Problematic files

The file dispute with Scharrenbach, which slowed down the investigation, came about, since the minister only made ten pages available at the three days of heavy rain. In view of the serious consequences of the flood, the opposition demanded more extensive information that should also cover the period after the disaster until September. As a result of the pressure from the opposition, a total of 425,000 other pages was made available after a lawsuit. Nevertheless, the oppositions criticized the incompleteness of the transmitted documents, which led to a further legal dispute and the waiver of the SPD on a new lawsuit in order to avoid calling the constitutional court. As a special problem, the SPD MPs see the lack of inspection in the private communication channels of Scharrenbach, especially in comparison to Rhineland-Palatinate, where the then Prime Minister Malu Dreyer disclosed their SMS traffic.

political responsibility and reform pressure

The discussion about the filing and access to private communication channels throws a shadow on dealing with the flood disaster. A political victim of this process became Ursula Heinen-Esser (CDU), who had to resign due to her circumstances during the flood disaster. Her stay in Mallorca, while the catastrophe raged, was perceived as intolerable. These events are not only symptomatic of individual political responsibility, but also for the major structural problems in crisis management, which are examined after the flood.

flood risk management in NRW

In the context of the flood -related examination, the failures in flood risk management are also visible. In Germany, a comprehensive management was already being worked on before the devastating events in July 2021, which is required with regard to flood prevention. Nevertheless, the case of North Rhine-Westphalia shows that complete protection against floods is technically and economically not possible, which is why there is a residual risk. The 10-point plan "Flood protection in times of climate change" should therefore address all levels of flood management, whereby both preventive and reactive measures play an important role. This includes, among other things, space provision, technical measures as well as the development of flood danger and risk cards that can contribute to improving the pension concepts.