Democracy needs water, water needs democracy. This is the central message we take away from the conference “Water extremes as a threat to our democracy” organized by the Baden-Württemberg State Ministry, the Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart and the Baden-Württemberg State Center for Political Education on 21.07.2025. Every intervention in the natural water balance has an impact elsewhere, and conflicts over water between different anthropogenic uses can arise both globally and locally. As a result, the environment is also severely affected in some cases. Resulting water emergencies require the constructive cooperation of a wide range of actors in order to ensure the distribution, use, protection of and from water for society as a whole and the environment; a task that is democratic in the deepest sense.
And at the same time, water is the basis of all activities that support our society – from the production and preparation of food, to industry and commerce, energy, recreation and much more. Water generates prosperity, health, satisfaction and cohesion, and we need all of this to maintain democracy with numerous hands and ideas. At the end of the event, the consensus of the panel of politicians was to shape the way we deal with water together and for the long term.
Thank you very much for the invitation to present our ZuWaKo project and the resulting serious game, for the great interest and for all the impulses that motivate us to conduct new research.
