A housing cooperative in the town of Dippoldiswalde in Saxony is reducing the supply of hot water due to drastically increased energy prices, the German tabloid Bild reports, citing a landlord’s letter to tenants sent on Monday.
According to the notice, hot water will no longer be available for the 600 apartments of the cooperative around the clock, but only intermittently. Tenants will be able to take hot showers between 4am and 8am, 11am and 1pm and 5pm and 9pm. During the night and in between those times, cold water will run from the taps.
“It’s not about annoying the tenants, but about adjusting to what we might not be able to pay for next year,” board member Falk Kuhn-Meisegeier told the German Press Agency, adding: “We want tenants to get through this crisis well. Life is expensive enough as it is.”
Over the weekend, the environmental chief of the city of Hamburg reportedly warned that hot water may be rationed in the city in case of an acute gas shortage.
German Federation of Trade Unions head Yasmin Fahimi added a further warning that “entire industries are in danger of permanently collapsing: aluminum, glass, the chemical industry,” due to Russian gas cuts.
Last month, Russian energy supplier Gazprom announced it was forced to slash natural gas flows to Germany via the Nord Stream pipeline by 60%, because Siemens turbines from its Portovaya pumping station in Vyborg were stuck in Montreal, where they had been sent to undergo maintenance. The parts fall under Canada’s sanctions on Russia, and Ottawa says it cannot return them without breaching the restrictions.
A complete cessation of Russian gas flows would make it extremely difficult for Germany to increase gas storage levels to the desired 90% by the time winter arrives. The current level reportedly stands at 61%.
On July 11, Gazprom will close Nord Stream for 10 days for scheduled maintenance. During this time all gas flows to Germany via the pipeline will cease.
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