Germany
Country profile
TuThe source of the Danube is in the Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg at the confluence
of the Brigach and Breg Rivers in Donaueschingen. Of Germany’s territory, over 56,184km² in
Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg are drained by the Danube – almost 17% of the country and 7%
of the basin. Some 9.4 million inhabitants live in the area, making up 11.6% of the population in the entire Danube Basin.
From its source, the Danube flows 584 km to the Austrian border.
Interestingly, the Danube loses about half its discharge to the Rhine Basin
through underground passages in its upper course near Immendingen.
The largest tributaries to the Danube in Germany are the Naab, Isar, Lech, Inn and Salzach Rivers.
The German Danube region includes the Swabian and Frankonian Alb, parts of the Oberpfälzer and the
Bavarian and Bohemian Forests in the north. To the south lie the Swabian-Bavarian-Austrian foothills.
The southern borderline is formed by the Alpine Rhine and Lake Constance as well as the southern tributaries
of the Lech, Inn and Salzach Rivers.
Rivers have been used as receiving waters for both urban and industrial waste water effluents for hundreds of years.
They also transport diffuse pollution loads. Over the past decades, general water quality has improved considerably
through large investments into wastewater treatment plants. There have been substantial reductions in the oxygen-sapping
organic substances and nutrients, such as phosphate and nitrogen. Since 1950 the number of wastewater treatment plants
has increased from 20 to about 3,000. In the year 2000, around 93% of the Bavarian population was connected to these
wastewater disposal facilities. The wastewater of the remaining 7% is treated in around 190,000 small wastewater plants.
Since 1975 water body protection includes measures specifically relating to the treatment of mixed water and rainwater.
So far, storm-water tanks with a total capacity of 1.95 million m³ have been built.