WRITTEN QUESTION E-2642/10 by Franziska Katharina Brantner (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

Subject: Flood retention basins for Waldsee//; implementation of EU directive

The Land of Rhineland-Palatinate is planning to build two flood retention basins in the municipalities of Waldsee, Altrip and Neuhofen in the Rhein-Pfalz district: the Waldsee/Altrip/Neuhofen flood retention basin (W/A/N polder) and the polders on the road between Altrip and Rheingönheim (K7). The proposed construction works will directly affect the conservation objectives of Altrip's inhabitants, the district's protected areas – in which some of the construction work will be carried out – and the nearby bodies of surface water and drainage ditches. The planned flood retention basins will encroach on parts of several flora and fauna habitats and bird protection areas.

Even now, when the floods, the groundwater in areas which are prone to waterlogging rises to the surface, and this is the case in the inhabited area of Altrip. When the W/A/N polder is flooded – both the 'controlled' and the 'uncontrolled' parts – it is likely that the pressurised water and groundwater problem will worsen. Moreover, according to the planning authority (SGD Süd), when the W/A/N polder is flooded the K13 road to Waldsee is left 20 centimetres under water, cutting off one emergency evacuation route for the inhabitants of Altrip. The only remaining evacuation route would then be the K7 to Rheingönheim on the old dyke of the Rhine, which will then be weakened from both sides when the Rhine floods.

The objective of the EU's flood risk management directives is to minimise flood-related risks to people, nature, the environment, infrastructure and property.

Does the Commission see a need, in accordance with the European flood risk management directives, to review the hydrological report drawn up for the flood retention basin (W/A/N polder), the reports on protecting nature and the environment, and the conservation objectives of Altrip's inhabitants, taking into account the issue of evacuation routes in conjunction with the Rehbach polder?

812402.EN PE 440.438