The traces of the flood are still present in North Rhine-Westphalia a year after the disaster. Billions of euros were made available for reconstruction. How many funds have been paid out so far?
Düsseldorf (dpa/lnw) – One year after the devastating floods in North Rhine-Westphalia, Building and Municipal Minister Ina Scharrenbach (CDU) today (10.30 a.m.) takes stock of the reconstruction. In the flood disaster in mid-July 2021, 49 people died in NRW alone. Tens of thousands of people in almost half of all municipalities in the most populous federal state were affected. In the Rhineland-Palatinate Ahr Valley, the flash flood even claimed 134 lives.
The heavy rain and the flood on 14./15. July 2021 was the worst natural disaster in the history of North Rhine-Westphalia. The federal and state governments provided around 12.3 billion euros for reconstruction. The NRW state government started the application process for reconstruction a week after the disaster. Scharrenbach now wants to present current figures and give an outlook on further reconstruction.
According to Scharrenbach, around 530 million euros had been approved for reconstruction aid by March. Scharrenbach had said in March that the municipalities could still submit reconstruction plans by the summer of 2023. The great wave of applications from the municipalities is still to come. The opposition had repeatedly criticized the sluggish reconstruction. The Greens, who are now coalition partners with the CDU, had also complained that the state did not support the local authorities sufficiently.
