Germany turning abandoned coal mines into 23 lakes, becoming artificial wetland

Germany is transforming abandoned lignite mining pits in eastern Lusatia into a network of 23 lakes covering approximately 14,000 hectares of water, creating Europe's largest artificial wetland. The Lusatian Lakeland project, which began in 1967 with Lake Senftenberg, combines environmental restoration with tourism and recreation to rehabilitate land heavily damaged by decades of open-cast coal mining. The flooding process uses groundwater and water from rivers to fill the enormous excavated areas left behind after coal extraction.