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Climate change is pushing THW to its limits: Extreme weather calls for more operations!
The flood disaster in the Ahr Valley highlights the growing challenges posed by extreme weather and climate change for the THW.
Climate change is pushing THW to its limits: Extreme weather calls for more operations!
It is August 16, 2025, and the challenges of climate change are more present than ever. The Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) has been confronted with a significant increase in missions in recent years. This is primarily due to extreme weather events, which are increasingly occurring due to climate change. President Sabine Lackner noted that the operations have increased in intensity both quantitatively and qualitatively ZDF today reported.
A striking feature of this development is the more frequent heavy rain events, which make larger and more extensive operations necessary. Lackner warns that the situation will continue to worsen in the future. This becomes particularly clear with the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley four years ago, which demonstrated the urgent need for effective flood protection. Unfortunately, there is still no effective protection there.
THW’s reaction to new challenges
The THW is adapting its strategies in view of these new challenges. The tasks include conveying water even over long distances to support fire departments in areas contaminated with ammunition. Such operations were already necessary at the beginning of 2024 in several federal states such as North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, and operations followed in May in other regions, such as Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate.
As the latest research results show, we will also have to expect an increased frequency and intensity of these extreme weather conditions in the coming years. Scientists agree that man-made climate change is a central factor in these developments.
Cloud service providers in the digital age
CSPs enable companies to rent technology infrastructure and offer various models such as IaaS, PaaS and SaaS, paving the way for greater agility and faster time to market. However, companies also face challenges, such as data confidentiality and security risks.
To partially address these concerns, many companies are turning to multiple cloud strategies to avoid the disadvantages of individual providers and maintain flexibility. These developments demonstrate the importance of addressing both the natural and digital challenges of today.
So we are at an exciting point: on the one hand, we have to face the direct effects of climate change, while on the other hand, technologies offer new solutions to make our operations more efficient and safer. The coming years will show how we can successfully manage both.