As Russia cuts gas to Germany, Hanover residents forced to take cold showers
The German city is cutting hot water and reducing heat and light in public facilities
People in Hanover, Germany, are stuck with cold showers and reduced heat in city buildings as Russia continues to cut its gas supply to Europe.
Hanover is the first major European city to start making significant cuts to its energy usage to brace for a possible winter gas crisis as the Russian war in Ukraine rages on.
"We are facing hard times due to the Russian aggression on Ukraine. And as we see that there's a looming gas shortage, this is a major challenge for municipalities," Hanover Mayor Belit Onay told As It Happens guest host Helen Mann.
"We have to prepare ourselves for the winter. And every kilowatt hour saved relieves the burden on gas storage facilities."
Gyms and pools affected; schools and hospitals exempt
The city's goal is to cut its energy use by 15 per cent, bringing them in line with a recent European Union agreement to ration energy and wean itself from dependence on Russian gas.
That means turning off the hot water in city-run facilities, including swimming pools, sports halls and gyms, forcing people to wash their hands and take showers in cold water.
The city is also shutting off outdoor lighting at museums, municipal buildings and other public sites around the city, and turning off all public fountains.
Come fall, heat use will also be scaled back. Between October and March, the city will set a maximum temperature in most public buildings at 20 C. That will be further reduced to 15 C in sports halls and gyms, and between 10-15 C on public transit and in storage areas.
Schools and hospitals will be exempt, Onay said.
Onay admits these adjustments will be challenging for residents, but he says people understand that Germany is facing a possible energy crisis come winter if Russia continues to limit — or worse, cut off — the supply of gas.
"I think everyone, not only the municipalities — the federal government also, and also every single person in Germany — is needed for this. Everyone has to save energy as much as possible so we can get through the winter," Onsay said.
"Otherwise ... in December or January, we will have much bigger problems than lighting or the showers."
What does this have to do with Ukraine?
European Union countries, including Germany, have loudly denounced Russia's war in Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainian refugees have fled to Europe, including hundreds of thousands in Germany.
At the same time, Russia has dramatically reduced its gas supply to Europe — a fact that's taken a huge toll on Germany, which gets 40 per cent of its gas from Russia.
As of Friday, Russian gas flows via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany remained at just 20 per cent of capacity.
Russia has blamed the cuts on maintenance work and technical problems with its pipeline turbines, including one that was repaired in Canada in violation of international sanctions.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has blamed those sanctions for exacerbating the gas shortage.
"If not for those restrictions, all maintenance, warranty and service operations would have been carried out in a usual, routine and prompt manner, without causing situations like the one we're seeing now," he told reporters on Tuesday.
But European countries say this is simply a matter of Russia blackmailing the EU over its position on Ukraine. Russia characterizes its invasion of Ukraine as a "special military operation" carried out in self-defence, while Ukraine and its allies say it was unprovoked.
"It's about either teaching us a lesson or making us nervous, or making the markets nervous," Sergey Lagodinsky, a German member of the European Parliament, told As It Happens earlier this month.
"In any case, it's an attempt to … break our ranks to try to destabilize this common front that Europe was building against [the] Kremlin.
Lagodinsky, a member of the Greens/European Free Alliance group, says Germany has allowed itself to become overly reliant on Russian gas instead of investing in green infrastructure. Mayor Onay agrees.
"We're totally dependent on Russia's energy and Russia's energy policy. That's the situation we face in Germany right now. And we see that we need to cut off this situation, cut off gas, cut off coal and bring more green energy up in Germany, and bring more renewable energy and renewable resources," Onay said.
"I think this is something everyone sees right now."
In the meantime, Onay says cold showers are a small price to pay to stand in solidarity with their Ukrainian neighbours.
"Their situation is much worse than our situation," he said.
Written by Sheena Goodyear with files from The Associated Press and Reuters. Interview with Belit Onay produced by Arman Aghbali.
