Brandenburg Water War: Industry Consumes 92% of Local Groundwater

Brandenburg, once considered one of Germany's water-rich regions, has become one of its driest — and now a growing conflict over groundwater is dividing industry and local residents.

In the small town of Baruth, about 60 kilometers south of Berlin, mineral water has been bottled since the 1990s. In early 2023, energy drink giant Red Bull and Austrian beverage company Rauch took over the local production site, planning to expand with a new can factory in the middle of a water protection zone.

92% Reserved for Industry

The Baruth waterworks is permitted to extract a set amount of groundwater each year. Of that, 92% is already reserved for Red Bull and Rauch — leaving just 8% for the town's approximately 4,300 residents. The companies are authorized to use enough water to meet the drinking needs of 57,000 people, extracting up to 7 million liters per day. Exactly how much they pay for this access remains undisclosed.

Former mayor Peter Ilk, long seen as the driver of the region's industrialization, insists there is no problem: We've always given priority to the population's supply. That's in all the contracts. But not everyone agrees.

Outdated Contracts and Hidden Data

Hydrogeologist Irina Engelhardt of the Technical University of Berlin says the contracts and expert reports underpinning current water rights date from the 1990s — before significant changes in groundwater levels and land use. I look with some concern at the water situation in Brandenburg, she said, adding that available water resources are currently being overestimated by state authorities.

Together with a local citizens' initiative, she is calling for new, independent expert assessments. Critics are also concerned that parts of the monitoring documents have been redacted by authorities, purportedly to protect the location of extraction wells. Some residents suspect the redactions are concealing changes in groundwater levels.

Is Brandenburg Running Out of Water?

Drought researcher Andreas Marx says the situation is problematic from a legal standpoint. Water is legally a non-ownable common good. In my view, all decisions made and all contracts concluded should also be publicly accessible, he said. Still, he and other experts stress that Brandenburg is not running out of water yet — the challenge is managing its distribution fairly as the climate continues to change.