Bavarian Minister Markus Söder Announces 1,200‑km Water Pipeline Project

Ahead of the summer holidays, Bavaria’s state cabinet convened aboard the MS Starnberg on the Starnberger See. Minister President Markus Söder, together with Agriculture Minister Michaela Kaniber and Environment Minister Thorsten Glauber, used the meeting to highlight rising heat and drought risks and to outline the state’s response.

Söder presented a multibillion‑euro scheme to extend existing water‑transfer infrastructure into a 1,200‑kilometre ring of pipelines that will move water from the Lower Lech area (near Gedingkingen and Oberndorf) to the water‑scarce north of Bavaria. The project, building on a network started in the 1970s, targets 2050 as a long‑term solution to the fact that 81 % of Bavaria’s groundwater stations now show low or very low levels.