Embellished groundwater model may jeopardise stability of planned opencast mining lakes

Cottbus, 30.01.2023. In a comprehensive statement, the environmental network GRÜNE LIGA has criticised the plans of the opencast mine operator LEAG to continue pumping out groundwater in the Jänschwalde opencast mine until 2044. The GRÜNE LIGA sees the stability of the planned opencast mining lakes at risk because LEAG's application ignores the increasing water shortage in Lusatia.
"The consequences of open-cast mining are being made up with fictitious amounts of water. LEAG's plan only works if there are no droughts and no increasing evaporation until 2100. Relying on this could cost the region dearly: If the planned water levels of the opencast lakes are not reached, the stability of the banks at Heinersbrück, Jänschwalde and Taubendorf will be in danger," explains René Schuster from the Green League's Federal Lignite Contact Point, who prepared the statement.
The GRÜNE LIGA also sees LEAG's request for permission under water law as contradictory to the official justification for groundwater extraction. Schuster comments:
"LEAG wants to pump out significantly more than is necessary for the safety of the mine, apparently in order to evaporate more water in the cooling towers of the Jänschwalde power plant. The aim is to burn as much coal as possible from the Welzow, Nochten and Reichwalde opencast mines at the expense of groundwater resources."

For a long time, the GRÜNE LIGA Osterzgebirge and the Ranoala Rainforest Association have been supporting reforestation projects in the (former) East Madagascar rainforest area. About ten years ago, the focus gradually began to expand from pure forest work to environmental education projects. This has developed into a school partnership between the Glückauf-Gymnasium Altenberg and the Lycée of the Malagasy village of Anjahambe, but above all into a wonderful partnership between committed young people in both, far-away countries. In Anjahambe, the "Analasoa-Club" (analasoa = the good forest) is active, in Altenberg the "Madagascar-AG".

The activities on both sides are based on the same principle: first working together practically for nature, then going on trips together to learn more about nature. Several times a year, the Analasoa Club organises student planting missions around the remaining rainforest called Analasoa. This involves multi-day excursions in rented "bush taxis" to well-known Malagasy national parks and other protected areas - financed by donations from Dresden and the Eastern Erz Mountains.

The up to 25 pupils plant rowan trees on the Kahleberg, tend wild hedges and take part in practical species protection measures around Altenberg. In return, once a year there is a larger trip to "rainforest experience places in Central Europe": to Gondwanaland Leipzig and the rainforest museum Phyllodrom, to the "Biosphäre" Potsdam, and even to the Masoala Hall of the Zurich Zoo. In 2019, the Madagascar-AG visited the Federal Ministry for Development Cooperation in Bonn and the Madagascar House of the Cologne Zoo.

60 organisations from agriculture and society are calling for the "We're fed up!" demonstration on 21 January. The GRÜNE LIGA is taking part. The slogan of the 2023 agricultural turnaround demonstration is "Good food for all - instead of profits for a few". Thousands of people are expected to march through Berlin's government quarter to kick off the world's largest agricultural trade fair, the Green Week, in support of consistent climate protection, species-appropriate animal husbandry, the preservation of biodiversity and global solidarity.

Climate crisis, food poverty, dying farms - the list of failures in agricultural, social and environmental policy is long. The balance sheet after one year of traffic light government is sobering and can be summarised as "too slow and too little". The "We're fed up!" alliance demands more speed in the socially just agricultural and food transition. In concrete terms, this means: fair producer prices for farms and the food trade, as well as much more support for those affected by poverty, so that they can afford fairly and sustainably produced, healthy food. 

Water law permit for Jänschwalde opencast mine expired at the turn of the year
Cottbus, 04.01.2023. The permit for the Jänschwalde open-cast mine to pump groundwater expired on 31.12.2022, but the open-cast mine will apparently continue to operate without a new permit. This creates facts in a legal vacuum, criticises the environmental network GRÜNE LIGA.

"Since 1996, all parties involved knew when the permit would expire, but a decision on the time after that has not been made until today. The coal company LEAG has delayed the procedure with late and incomplete applications and is not prevented by the mining authority from creating further facts. It is very difficult to believe in the rule of law here," says René Schuster of the GRÜNE LIGA.

Lakes, Wetlands and Natural Climate Protection in the UN Decade of Habitat Restoration

Thursday, 19 January 2023 from 10.00 to 17.00

Friday, 20 January 2023 from 9.30 to 13.00

in bUm - Betterplace Umspannwerk , Paul-Linke-Ufer 21, Berlin

We cordially invite you to the Lakes Conference 2023. Too little attention is still paid to lakes, wetlands and their catchments as carbon sinks and biodiversity hotspots. Lakes continue to be overexploited, peatlands drained and wetlands not rewetted as required. With the Lakes Conference 2023, we want to strengthen the focus on these valuable habitats and at the same time broaden the perspective for contributions to natural climate protection in Germany and beyond.