the wwk is a public german water board (“wasserverband”) located in essen (north rhine-westphalia/germany) and responsible for the adjustment of the river lippe water level and service water supply from the west german shipping canals and artificial watercourses in connection with the rivers rhine, lippe and ruhr. the responsibilities are solely covering the water supply sector and not the operation of the shipping canals that are under direction of the federal waterways authority (bundeswasserstraßenverwaltung). the catchment area of the wwk comprises the rhine-herne canal, the wesel-datteln canal, the datteln-hamm canal and the dortmund-ems canal.