Stock Photo - 02 January 2020, Brandenburg, Cottbus: View over the former opencast lignite mine Cottbus-Nord and future Cottbus Baltic Sea (aerial view with a drone). After a month-long stop due to severe drought, water has been flowing into the Cottbus Baltic again since around mid-December 2019. However, according to a company spokeswoman of Lausitz Energie Bergbau AG (LEAG), the former opencast mine is not being flooded. The responsible authorities of the states of Saxony, Brandenburg and Berlin had decided that with a water inflow of 0.5 cubic metres per second - that is about 43,300 cubic metres per day - the water management conditions in the Baltic Sea should be further stabilised. In mid-April 2019, flooding of the former open-cast mine had begun, but was interrupted again after just under two weeks due to the drought. No more water was allowed to be taken from the Spree. Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa-Zentralbild/ZB. - Cottbus/Brandenburg/Germany