The public water supply only uses 3 % of the available water resources

02.02.06

Germany is a country with a lot of water. As a long term average there are 182 billion (thousand million) cubic metres of water available per year.

According to www.bgw.de the water drawn by all users is 38 billion cubic metres. In total, less than 20.9 % of the annually available water is extracted and returned, after use. 79.1 % of the annually available water is not used.
Power stations are the largest water users with 24.8 billion cubic metres. These take surface water almost exclusively, using it mostly for cooling.
The second largest group of users are mines and processing industries with 7.8 billion m³. The public water supply only uses 3.0 % of the annually available amount.
The water resource situation in Germany is excellent for the provision of clean drinking water now and in the future. The basis for this is effective control of water pollution.
The german article can be found here.