They should actually be on the road. But in Cologne several hundred e-scooters were discovered on the bottom of the Rhine. The scooters apparently also pose a threat to the environment.
In Cologne there are apparently several hundred electric scooters on the bottom of the Rhine. These have been thrown into the river by hitherto unknown people, as reported by, among others. “Our divers have so far made more than chance finds and discovered scooters in the area of the Hohenzollern Bridge and on the bank area,” said Ilona Grezmann-Hambüchen, managing director of Moissl Bautaucher GmbH of the newspaper.
According to the, there are more than 500 e-scooters that are in the Rhine. The bottom of the river is “littered” with the electric scooters. According to WDR, the Cologne construction diver Markus Hambüchen was contacted by the largest provider of e-scooters in Germany. The diver was asked for an estimate for the recovery of 500 e-scooters.
Battery casings appear to be leaking
“I thought it was good that someone was finally taking care of the problem with the electric scooters in the Rhine,” Hambüchen told the broadcaster. When working, he and his team often find the scooters.
The scooters apparently also pose a threat to the environment. “We have noticed that some of these scooters secrete a sticky mass. Apparently, the battery casings on the vehicles in the Rhine are leaking and chemicals are released from the batteries,” said Hambüchen . According to WDR, the e-scooter provider refrained from salvage after the cost estimate. In terms of costs, it is not worth getting the scooters out of the Rhine, Hambüchen quotes the client. Such a rescue operation can quickly cost several thousand euros.
This behavior is scandalous, so the water expert from the Bund für Umwelt- und Naturschutz Deutschland in NRW, Paul Kröfges, to the WDR: “There are hundreds of these vehicles in the Rhine in Cologne alone, toxic and dangerous substances are released and the owners want their scrap in the Let the Rhine. The responsible environmental authorities cannot accept that. The Rhine supplies drinking water for around 30 million people in Europe “.
No solution to the e-scooter problem
The e-scooter companies Tier and VOI informed the WDR that their batteries are safe and that there is no danger to the water in the Rhine. Tier said, however, that corrosion can damage the metal if the scooters are in the water for a long time. Try to get the scooter out of the water as soon as possible. However, neither Krake nor the diving entrepreneur Hambüchen are aware of any major rescue operations.
According to the report of the “Rundschau”, the Cologne Rhein-Aufräum-Kommando-Unit (Krake for short) recovered 39 e-scooters from the Rhine last August alone. The rental companies are aware of the problem. They would have set up so-called no-parking zones around rivers and lakes to solve the problem. However, this does not help much, because the perpetrators are usually not the scooter drivers themselves.
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