IKT coordinates “canal emergency aid”

After the heavy rain dis­as­ter in North Rhine-West­phalia and Rhineland-Palati­nate, the sewage sys­tem must be put back into oper­a­tion with­out delay. Oth­er­wise, sub­se­quent rains will not be able to drain away and there is a risk of renewed flood­ing. The IKT — Insti­tute for Under­ground Infra­struc­ture brings togeth­er munic­i­pal­i­ties that need help and those that want to help. In thir­teen cities and munic­i­pal­i­ties, sew­er clean­ing vehi­cles from out­side have been and are still being used.

Time is press­ing: sew­er net­works in the areas affect­ed by the heavy rains must be sift­ed and cleared of silt­ing as quick­ly as pos­si­ble. Oth­er­wise, the next rain threat­ens new floods and even more dam­age. The affect­ed waste­water com­pa­nies are often no longer able to do this on their own. In this sit­u­a­tion, Kom­NetAB­WASS­ER is coor­di­nat­ing an emer­gency sew­er aid pro­gram based on solidarity.

14 munic­i­pal­i­ties, which were spared by the heavy rain, sent sew­er clean­ing vehi­cles and gul­ly clean­ers to the dis­as­ter areas as offi­cial assistance:

Arns­berg helps in Alte­na and Sundern
Dorsten helps in Blankenheim
Dort­mund helps in Bad Münstereifel
Duis­burg helps in Weilerswist
Gelsenkirchen helps in Altena
Hal­tern and Herne helps in Zülpich
Moers helps in Mech­er­nich, Weil­er­swist and Niederzissen
Mül­heim helps in Eschweil­er and Swisttal
Mün­ster helps in Swisttal
Oer-Erken­schwick helps in Altena
Rhe­da-Wieden­brück helps in Swisttal
Siegen helps in Schleiden
Stuttgart helps in Gerolstein
Oth­ers, such as Han­nover and Wolfs­burg, are wait­ing in the wings if help is still need­ed some­where. “And for the com­mu­ni­ty of Schuld, we were able to arrange sup­port from pri­vate pipe clean­ing ini­tia­tives from Schleswig-Hol­stein and Low­er Sax­ony,” adds Mar­co Schlüter, head of KomNetABWASSER.

“We as IKT do the match­ing between those will­ing to help and those in need of help quite pre­cise­ly. From our Kom­NetAb­wass­er, we know every­one. This allows us to ensure that the right peo­ple with the right equip­ment get to the right place and help.”

- Roland W. Waniek, IKT Man­ag­ing Director

Municipalities provide administrative assistance — across the country

Kom­NetAB­WASSER’s “sew­er assis­tance” for the affect­ed munic­i­pal­i­ties in Rhineland-Palati­nate and North Rhine-West­phalia start­ed imme­di­ate­ly in the first days after the dis­as­ter. The biggest prob­lem at first was to even reach the right con­tacts for the sew­er infra­struc­ture. Pow­er sup­ply and mobile net­works were down. But once the experts were reached, the relief effort got under­way imme­di­ate­ly. Helpers from munic­i­pal­i­ties pro­vid­ing assis­tance in sev­er­al Ger­man states imme­di­ate­ly moved out toward the dis­as­ter area with sew­er clean­ing vehi­cles, sink­hole clean­ers and mobile pumps. They were received on site by those respon­si­ble and briefed on the local situation.

Matching sewer operators at specialist level

Assis­tance is effec­tive quick­ly and accu­rate­ly when sew­er oper­a­tions are linked at the sub­ject lev­el. This is the cen­tral expe­ri­ence of the first week after the flood dis­as­ter, dur­ing which much has already been achieved.

Canal emergency aid” coordination center has great potential

The fresh­ly gained expe­ri­ence also shows that it would have been advis­able to do some pre­lim­i­nary work to coor­di­nate aid on this large but nec­es­sary scale. It would make sense for munic­i­pal­i­ties to store the con­tact details of their sew­er spe­cial­ists in a data­base in advance and to list their inven­to­ry of vehi­cles, equip­ment and per­son­nel. In an emer­gency, help can then be pro­vid­ed much more quick­ly and accurately.