Wasserverband Westdeutsche Kanäle

The Wasserverband Westdeutsche Kanäle is a German statutory body for the adjustment of the Lippe water level and service water supply from the West German shipping canals and artificial watercourses in connection with the rivers Rhine, Lippe and Ruhr.

Responsibilities and tasks of the WWK (= water board West German canals) are defined in the related statutes, enacted December 3, 1969, based on a treaty between the German Federal Ministry for Transport and the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and an executive order of the Environment Ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). The WWK is a public German water board (“Wasserverband”) located in Essen (North Rhine-Westphalia/Germany) and responsible for the adjustment of the river Lippe water level and service water supply from the West German shipping canals and artificial watercourses in connection with the rivers Rhine, Lippe and Ruhr. The responsibilities are solely covering the water supply sector and not the operation of the shipping canals that are under direction of the Federal Waterways Authority (Bundeswasserstraßenverwaltung). The catchment area of the WWK comprises the Rhine-Herne Canal, the Wesel-Datteln Canal, the Datteln-Hamm Canal and the Dortmund-Ems Canal. The main tasks are

Though being a statutory body the WWK has no sovereign power but depends on permissions of governmental institutions. For the amount of water tapped by local clients individual permissions from the responsible municipal or District Council departments are obligatory. Regulating authorities are the District Council of Düsseldorf and the Environment Ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia. Moreover, the distributed volume of water depends on pump capacities and demands of the shipway trafficability. As the canals are designed for navigation all other interests are second-rank. Members of the WWK decide about the guidelines of the association, the business plan and fees, elect the chairman (“Verbandsvorsteher”) and chief operating officer (“Geschäftsführer”). The number of votes depends on the quantity to be received