The "Berlin Water" CSOP

In Berlin, although the Spree is swimmable on the outskirts, the river and its subsidiary streams within the city are periodically contaminated when heavy rainfall overwhelms the municipal sewage system and, in order to protect the streets, the overflow, including raw sewage, is diverted into the Spree. The measures implemented by the city of Berlin to date – underground concrete basins as buffers and an intelligent canal control system – remain insufficient to capture the 3 to 4 million cubic meters of untreated wastewater still discharged into the river each year. LURITEC, a new system of pre-manufactured, modular synthetic glass fibre tubes that replace traditional concrete tanks and are placed in the river instead of underground can make a cost-efficient contribution to closing this gap. Here citizen’s financial participation can lower public costs of the 60 m Euro project while providing a grassroots democratic backbone. A Consumer Stock Ownership Plan (CSOP) allows for low-risk loan financing of a significant share of the project while at the same time requiring only a small financial contribution from the CSOP participants. Combining different revenue sources, the redemption period for repaying the 12.4 million Euro
debt is 8.5 years.