Better access to drinking water in public spaces is the aim of the German government's planned amendment to the Water Resources Act. Under the amendment, local authorities are to install more public drinking water fountains in parks, pedestrian zones and shopping malls, for example, as part of their heat prevention efforts. A corresponding bill by the German government to amend the Water Resources Act was approved by the Committee for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection in an amended version on Wednesday morning.

The coalition factions of the SPD, Greens and FDP as well as the CDU/CSU faction voted in favor of the bill, while the AfD faction voted against it. The left-wing faction abstained from voting.With the amendment of the original draft law, the traffic light partially takes into account the amendment requests of the Bundesrat expressed in a statement, in addition, the text of the law specifies, among other things, that municipalities should create drinking water wells in the future not only in indoor but also in outdoor areas, explained representatives of the coalition factions. This is important, they said, to give homeless people in particular access to drinking water at all times. Overall, they said, the federal government was making a contribution to climate adaptation with the amendment.

Further information at: https://www.bundestag.de/presse/hib/kurzmeldungen-920200

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