Dike association

Dyke associations are corporate bodies responsible for coastal protection on the (German) North Sea coast or flood protection on German rivers.

Dike associations are water associations with the special task of flood protection, often combined with other water management tasks, such as B. Water maintenance or pumping station operation .

Many water and soil associations look back on a long history.

In Germany they are corporations under public law , more precisely a self-governing body (Prussian Water Act of April 7, 1913 and the Water Association Ordinance of September 3, 1937), see also Law on Water and Soil Associations (Water Association Act) of February 10, 1937.

Today all German states have state water laws .

Designations

On the Schleswig-Holstein North Sea coast ( North Friesland and Dithmarschen ), these associations have mostly been called Deich- and (main) sewer association since 1941 , between the Elbe and Weser Deichverband , in the Oldenburgische Deichband and in Ostfriesland Deichacht .

In rural areas, the chairpersons are traditionally called Deichgraf or Deichgräfe and thus belong to the non-aristocratic counts .

Historical origin

The original forms were probably the village community or a local cooperative. There were and are also district or regional cooperatives. Probably has always been each beneficiary of cooperative work at the same time a compulsory member .

Different protection needs arose from the landscape conditions. Lowlands needed the dyke construction as protection against external flooding. Higher altitudes needed the special ditch and sewer construction as protection against inland floods. These different interests and tasks led to the division into dike associations and sewer associations . A distinction was made between dike associations, associations with natural drainage, associations with artificial drainage and irrigation associations. There were also various special associations, such as B. Mill and pump associations.

These water management associations were and are part of the national culture. In part, they also served to reclaim land or reclaim areas. The protection of land areas from storm surges and inland floods made many areas habitable in the first place. The dyke associations owned the dyke properties that they could assign to individual settlers for use ( Stavenrecht ), who were also responsible for the dyke and path maintenance obligations. So villages and towns could arise there. Nevertheless, there were always storm surges that broke through the dikes .

The associations now perform their tasks on a non-profit basis in the broadest sense, with special involvement of environmental protection.

organization

In their original form, these associations were loose interest groups . Only the increasing community interest led to association-like, self-administered associations with initially only voluntary, but soon compulsory membership. Membership was then, and continues to this day, based on the protective interests of the respective members. This is made clear by a translated quote from the Sachsenspiegel (legal book 13th century):

Villages on the waterfront with a dike should maintain their part of the dike. But if the flood comes and breaks the dike, then all residents are obliged to cooperate with the restoration. Anyone who does not make their contribution has forfeited the right to their property behind the dike.

In his time, Charlemagne had already collected the many inconsistent legal forms in which the associations were organized and brought them together in the Lex Frisionum . Even after that, many different legal forms continued to exist in the most varied of domains and forms of rule, all of which had the same objective in common; see e.g. B. Spadeland Law . Only at the beginning of the 19th century was it possible to find uniform legal forms well into the 20th century. During this time, the associations were often still organized in the legal form of a cooperative , for example the Bruchhausen-Syke-Thedinghausen melioration cooperative . Today the organization is based on the general rules for water and soil associations.

A department in North Rhine-Westphalia wrote on May 15, 1990, two days after the NRW state election and 26 months after the great Rhine flood in 1988 in a situation report on the organization of flood protection on the Lower Rhine at the time:

“The construction, maintenance and defense of the Rhine dykes have so far been organized heterogeneously, be it by municipalities, dyke associations with tangible membership or dyke associations with corporate membership. In the metropolitan area between the border with the Cologne district government and the northern city limits of Duisburg, municipalities and associations with municipal membership without costs for the beneficiaries dominate, downstream associations with in rem membership with cost allocation, but also without reserves. Approx. 150 km of Rhine dykes are in need of rehabilitation. The state finances dyke construction and renovation with up to 80%. "

- Situation report from 1990 by the state government

Eckhard Uhlenberg (CDU), Environment Minister of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia from autumn 2005 until the state elections in 2010 , stated:

“The obligation to flood protection is not regulated by law in North Rhine-Westphalia! They are not assigned to the state, the municipalities, or individuals. On a voluntary basis, affected citizens can join forces in water associations (dyke associations) and issue statutes. "

Dike associations act or acted in some places in a legally unclear environment.

Others

Technical terms

Some (technical) terms in connection with dike associations and their committees are outdated historically and sound strange because they are no longer known today.

A dike association usually consists of various bodies:

General Assembly:

Assembly of association members. It has no direct decision-making authority. It elects the association committee or inheritance day.

Association committee / inheritance day:

Parliamentary body, highest decision-making body; regulates the main features of the work.

Deichstuhl:

Association Board. He is responsible for day-to-day business and administration.

Deichgraf / Deichgräf / Deich-Hauptmann:

Head and representative of the association.

Home council

Board member who often looks after and represents a part or district of the association's territory.

The association issues a statute which defines the details of the organization and structure.

Services of general interest - task of the local authorities

Flood protection (planned, among other things, in flood protection concepts) is an important task of all regional authorities in the potential flood area of a body of water within the framework of services of general interest . As a rule, it requires the cooperation of several regional authorities. One example is the flood protection on the Lower Rhine (note: item under construction). The Rhine from Bonn downstream ( Lower Rhine ) flows through such flat terrain that the surrounding area has to be continuously protected by dikes.

Twelve local authorities are involved between Bonn and the border with the Netherlands:

Kleve district (left + right)
District Wesel (left + right)
Duisburg (left + right)
Krefeld (left)
Rhine district Neuss (left), Düsseldorf (right), district Mettmann (right)
Cologne (left and right), Leverkusen (right)
Rhein-Erft district (left)
Rhein-Sieg district (left and right)
Bonn (left and right)

They belong partly to the Cologne district and partly to the Düsseldorf district . The state of North Rhine-Westphalia is also involved. Among other things, it works in the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine and in the German-Dutch working group on floods.

The Düsseldorf district government writes on its website:

“The legal supervision of the water associations is regulated in the Water Association Act (WVG). This legal supervision for the dike associations on the Rhine was assigned to the district government. "

"Members of an association are acc. 4 WVG i. d. As a rule, all owners of land located in the area of the association (so-called real members). A member of an association can also be a legal person under public law [...] [(as a so-called corporate member), eg a municipality or a water association (as a sub-association of the municipality). "

"If an association is founded or if it expands its association territory, the property owners who benefit from the association's work are to be formally consulted by the district government for membership. This is possible on application or compulsorily in order to record all those who have the advantage and to ensure a fair distribution of the burden on everyone. "

“The association area of a dike association includes all properties that benefit from the association's tasks. This advantage can e.g. B. in the fact that the property is protected from flooding or that the rainwater falling on the property is discharged harmlessly into a ditch and later into the Rhine. The concept of advantage is to be understood very abstractly here. "

“A dike association is largely financed through membership fees. In addition, it is supported by state subsidies (e.g. for the renovation or construction of a flood protection system or water maintenance). "

Web links

literature

Arnulf Rapsch: Water Association Law. Munich 1993, ISBN 3-406-37534-0 .
Michael Reinhardt, Frank Hasche (ed.): WVG - Water Association Act. Comment. 1st edition. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-61573-3 .
in connection with the development of dyke law: Deich- und Hauptsielverband Dithmarschen (Ed.): Chronicle of the Deich- und Hauptsielverband Dithmarschen , Volume I: Historical presentation, legal basis, emergence of water and soil associations and association activities. 2nd Edition. Hemmingstedt 2008, pp. 55-57.

Footnotes

^ The dike association Dormagen / Zons. Deichverband Dormagen / Zons, accessed on June 2, 2020 . see also law and regulation as well as ordinances. Deichverband Dormagen / Zons, accessed on June 2, 2020 .

↑ PDF, 2 pages

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g District government Düsseldorf : Ein Deichverband ( Memento of the original from October 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2

[1] The dike association Dormagen / Zons. Deichverband Dormagen / Zons, accessed on June 2, 2020 . see also law and regulation as well as ordinances. Deichverband Dormagen / Zons, accessed on June 2, 2020 .

[2] PDF, 2 pages