Germany’s bodies of water have seen better days, with just 6.6 per cent of rivers and streams currently in what EU guidelines define as a “good ecological condition”.

In response to a parliamentary request for information from the Green Party, the government reported this week that, in 93 per cent of Germany’s rivers and streams, the proliferation of wildlife is below expected levels, while 79 per cent of them have been “significantly or completely changed” in structure by human intervention.

Though water quality has improved in general, and beavers and salmon have returned to German waters, streams and floodplains remain endangered habitats, said the environment ministry.

“Both the Federal Government and individual state authorities should do more to protect Germany’s free-flowing rivers,” said Steffi Lemke, the Green Party’s spokesperson on conservation, adding that the river was in “acute danger” as an ecosystem.

According to the Federal Office for the Environment, the biggest threat to rivers and streams comes from agriculture, and the effect of fertilisation and irrigation practices.

The environmental organisation WWF has demanded “more money, more personnel, and more political will” in order to combat the problems, and has criticised the European Commission’s ongoing review of the EU Water Framework Directive.

“The situation in Germany is now concerning, bordering on critical,” said a WWF spokesperson. </s> In Germany, Europe's biggest economy, farmers are fearful at the start of the growing season following below-average rainfall earlier this year - bad news after last year's drought.

[BERLIN] Weather experts warn of drought in Europe over its summer as firefighters tackled forest fires on Thursday, and farmers fretted over wilting crops and a repeat of 2018's arid conditions.

In Germany, Europe's biggest economy, farmers are fearful at the start of the growing season following below-average rainfall earlier this year - bad news after last year's drought.

Unless significant rain falls in May, experts say there is little chance of decent crops.

"If the dry weather continues in the coming months, the drought of 2018 could be repeated or even exceeded," warned Udo Busch, head of the German weather service's agricultural section.

A lack of rain has turned some forests into potential tinderboxes.

Over the past few days, German firefighters have tackled blazing forest fires in the states of Hessen, Brandenburg and Thuringia.

A senior fire chief has even asked authorities, including the army, to lend helicopters in order to "react adequately".

Scandinavia has also been hit, with Swedish firefighters currently tackling 10 to 15 forest fires a day after precious little rain this month.

The most serious blaze broke out over 300 hectares in the southern district of Hassleholm, forcing 49 people to be evacuated.

Last year nearly 25,000 hectares of land was ravaged by fires in Sweden.

In neighbouring Norway, a forest fire narrowly missed the community of Sokndal, but around 70 firefighters were still extinguishing flames on Thursday over an area of 750 hectares.

Phil Hogan, the European Union's agriculture commissioner, on Thursday promised farmers and rural communities in member states will get EU support should drought strike again.

In the German state of Brandenburg, surrounding Berlin, barren fields resemble desert landscapes.

There are fears of a repeat of last year's poor harvest, when crops were down between 30 to 80 per cent, threatening the livelihoods of many German farmers.

Across Brandenburg's 780 farms, reported losses for 2018 topped 93 million euros (S$141.3 million) and the state had to provide 72 million euros in aid.

Rain is forecast for the coming days. But it is expected to be far insufficient for what is needed to mitigate a worrying situation.

"We sincerely hope for rain - the decisive month for us is May," said farmers' association spokesman Tino Erstling.

In neighbouring Austria, the first signs of drought have already appeared in the east and north, raising fears of another bleak harvest.

Rainfall is already down to just a quarter of the 10-year average in recent weeks.

Potato growers are demanding a relaxation of pesticide regulations to better control numbers of wireworm, which they say are flourishing because of drought.

"The current signs point to suffering for agriculture," said Hagelversicherung, a specialist insurance company.

The situation is even more shocking in the Czech Republic, where 99 per cent of the country has already been hit by drought over the last five weeks.

A third of the country is classed among the worst two drought categories on a six-level scale, according to the Intersucho (Interdrought) portal, which monitors drought in central Europe.

The drought has come a month earlier than last year.

In many Czech villages, the wells are already dry, forcing the population to find other ways to get water.

Forecasters predict rain this weekend which may help save some crops, but farmers remain sceptical.

Hardest hit will be the regions northwest of Prague, where hops crucial to the Czech beer industry are grown, and in the southeast, famous for its wine and grain.

A couple of windy days over the past weeks haven't helped as the wind has dried the top layer of soil.

The drought is also devastating Czech forests as it encourages breeding of the bark beetle with damage this year projected to top one billion euros.

The Czech Republic has been grappling with bark beetle infestation for several years and experts say the current situation is the worst in Czech history. </s> DETROIT (AP) — Michigan's attorney general in 2016 promised to investigate "without fear or favor" the scandal over Flint's lead-tainted drinking water and pledged that state regulators would be locked up for fudging data and misleading the public.

Yet three years later, no one is behind bars. Instead, seven of 15 defendants have pleaded no contest to misdemeanors, some as minor as disrupting a public meeting. Their records eventually will be scrubbed clean.

That has angered some people in Flint who believe key players who could have prevented the lead disaster are getting off easy. Four of five people at the state Department of Environmental Quality who were on the front line of the crisis have struck deals. The remaining cases mostly center on a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires' disease and early disastrous decisions to use water from the Flint River.

"I'm furious – absolutely furious," said LeeAnne Walters, a mother of four who is credited with exposing the lead contamination. "It's a slap in the face to every victim in the city of Flint."

Walters, 40, said she was repeatedly brushed off by the Department of Environmental Quality, known as DEQ, even as she confronted officials with bottles of brown water. She testified in Congress after then-Gov. Rick Snyder in 2015 finally acknowledged the lead mess, and she later was honored with an international prize for grassroots environmental activism.

"Instead of people being held accountable, they're getting a free pass," Walters said. "The fact remains there wouldn't have been a problem with the lead and the legionella if the water had been treated properly, if MDEQ would have done their job."

Flint was one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in U.S. history. While waiting for a new pipeline to bring water from Lake Huron, the majority-black city of 100,000 pulled water from a river in 2014-15 without treating it to reduce corrosive effects on old pipes. Lead infected the distribution system in Flint, where 41 percent of residents are classified by the government as living in poverty.

Due to poor finances, Flint was being run by financial managers appointed by the governor. The uproar over water quality reached a peak by fall 2015 when a doctor reported high levels of lead in children, which can cause brain damage. The water no longer comes from the river and has significantly improved, but some residents are so distrustful that they continue to use bottled water.
The WWF describes Germany's rivers as being in a state "bordering on critical" after it emerges more than 90% do not meet European Union standards for cleanliness and ecological quality.