Stock Photo - 09 April 2019, North Rhine-Westphalia, Grevenbroich: The Erft rifle in Wevlinghoven. The Erft is a 106.6 kilometre long river that rises in the Eifel and flows into the Rhine in Neuss in the Grimlinghausen district. The Erft is still well filled with water. But after the end of the lignite opencast mine, the Erft will only have a quarter of its current water level. When the energy supply company RWE shuts off the pumps and no more sump water (the water produced in open pit lignite mining is known as sump water) is fed into the Erft, the river Erft becomes a small river. Photo: Horst Ossinger/dpa. - Grevenbroich/North Rhine-Westphalia/Germany