Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – The dispute over the repurchase of the Stuttgart water network between the municipality and an EnBW subsidiary has been settled. The city and the supplier announced this on Thursday. Accordingly, the municipality receives an individually agreed right of first refusal if Netze BW Wasser GmbH or its parent companies are no longer majority publicly owned from Baden-Württemberg. In return, the city is withdrawing the ongoing lawsuit for the surrender of the network and agreeing on a new, 20-year concession contract with the subsidiary of Energie Baden-Württemberg.
As part of the compromise, the municipality is also granted a number of information and participation rights. In the corresponding company, which operates the water network, there will be two supervisory board seats for the city in the future and it also has a blocking minority in the shareholders’ meeting there, as both sides further announced.
The council still has to approve the agreement. The EnBW supervisory board has already given the green light. Stuttgart’s Lord Mayor Frank Nopper (CDU) said they wanted to end an expensive and lengthy legal dispute with an uncertain outcome amicably. “This gives us the opportunity to take the drinking water network into municipal hands after the concession contract expires.” And EnBW board member Dirk Güsewell emphasized that the agreement could perhaps be used to reliably eliminate the biggest concern in Stuttgart – the possible sale of the water network to a “locust”.
The dispute had dragged on for more than ten years, most recently before the Stuttgart Regional Court. The purchase price was disputed between the city and Netze BW. The main focus was on the assessment of the systems. The municipality filed a lawsuit in 2013.
According to earlier information, it is about 2,500 kilometers of water pipes, 44 elevated tanks for drinking water, 39 pumping stations, 16,949 hydrants and 16,247 valves. These are necessary to supply households and companies with water. When the municipality once sold its municipal utility to EnBW, the water network was there. Now the city wanted to run it itself again because there had been a successful citizens’ initiative on the subject. The council decision was made in 2010.
