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Eilenburger Hochwasserschutzdämme
Overview
Eilenburg in the 16th Century.
Eilenburg in the 16th Century.

The river Mulde and the Flood

Eilenburg was hit the hardest in the flood of the century (2002) out of all the cities in the administrative district of Leipzig (West Saxony).  The market place became a lake and the entire city centre was completely inaccessible for days.  Water stood two metres high in the Karl-Marx residential area for several days as well.  The municipal damages alone ran up a bill of over 60 million euros.

Yet even this cloud had its silver lining.  This catastrophe naturally accelerated the slow, even hesitant, progress and construction of protective measures to a speed the Eilenburger citizens could never have imagined.  Eilenburg is the first Saxon city that is, as of 2009, considered completely flood-proof; at least as far as experts can predict.  The free state of Saxony poured 35 million euros into this venture and erected 13 km of walls and dikes along the millrace and river.  The retaining walls along the millrace don't quite reach the level of the flood waters of August, 2002, however due to the relocation of the original dikes in Eilenburg and other surrounding communities upstream, Eilenburg should be relatively safe from any further catastrophes of its kind.

Eilenburg's Flood Control Measures

Because of Eilenburg's location, flood control measures have always been in place, to some degree.  During the period of the GDR, however, the protective measures played a relatively ancillary role.  This naturally affected the conditions and state of the protective facilities, but this neglect was amended after the Reunification.  Already at the start of the 90's the city began rebuilding the 30 metre high wall along Mulden Street.  It became clear at that time that the necessary flood control measures would cost a great deal more than this community could afford.  Eilenburg used the post-Reunification opportunity to make some noise about the poor conditions of the protective facilities at various government agencies.  And not without some success.

In 1997 the State Reservoir and Dam Association (formerly known as the Reservoir Maintenance Committee Roetha) visited Eilenburg, due to the initiative of city council.  The meetings and discussions produced results.  By the end of the same year the protective measures were inspected and a prioritized list preceded the beginnings of a detailed plan.

In the summer of 2000 construction finally began, namely on the part of the dike between the Röhrenbrücke und the Ilburg Sports Stadium.  More projects followed on the western part of the millrace.  The plan for 2002 entailed construction on the old Highway 87 as well as the Polyplast Compound Factory (ECW) site.  A public groundbreaking for a retaining wall next to  Maxim-Gorki-Place with representatives of the state government was even scheduled for August the 13th, the very day Eilenburg was hit by the flood of the century.

It brought much suffering, but also a great deal of action as the severity of this force of nature became apparent.  Almost overnight funds were made available by the Saxon state government.  The  State Reservoir and Dam Association (LTV) got the green light for any and all necessary construction projects that were actually only intended to be finished by 2010.  Michael Riechert, project head of the LTV for Eilenburger flood control measures, was quoted in the Leipziger Regional Newspaper (Leipziger Volkszeitung) on September 19th, 2008: "We were all in shock.  We could start right away, the permits came in quickly, although the work that had already taken place since 1997 stood us in good stead."  Already in November, 2002 six projects were started up around the millrace.  Up until 2009 a total of 35 million euro have virtually flowed into three main areas: millrace, Mulde, and Hainichen.  During this process enough earth has been moved to fill the cars of a 280 km freight train.  The dikes and retaining walls inside Eilenburg's city limits run, in total, the length of 13 km.  The protective walls in the downtown area were constructed out of ferroconcrete, mainly to save space.  The areas surrounding the city centre are mainly protected by dikes and dams.