Normally, the consumer perceives little of the effort that the water supply companies make on a daily basis to provide drinking water of the highest quality and quantity at all times. To a certain extent, this also includes the provision of companies for emergencies and crises. After all, the availability of drinking water is of course also of great importance in such situations. So what should water supply companies do to prepare themselves even better for such events?
Prof. Steffen Krause: Water supply companies provide drinking water services on behalf of local authorities. However, once a certain extent of an emergency or crisis has been reached, a water supply company is no longer in a position to maintain the water supply with its own resources. The municipalities are then dependent on the support of other institutions. These include disaster control, the fire brigade and higher administrative structures. Our surveys show that there is a great need on a practical level to discuss this interaction and the transfer of responsibilities, and to document it in plans. Those municipalities that have already done so are encouraged to train and further develop the paper-based procedure in the form of exercises.