Shippers Warn Rhine Could Be 'Split in Two' by Low Water
- On Monday, the federal association of German inland shipping warned that low water levels risk halting cargo traffic on a key stretch of the Rhine this week, effectively splitting the waterway into two separate zones.
- BDB managing director Jens Schwanen told the Rheinische Post that water levels at Kaub are forecast to drop into single digits for the first time due to lack of rainfall, following record-breaking heatwaves across Europe this summer.
- Schwanen said, "Commercial shipping will no longer be able to transport goods in the region at such low water levels." A sign on a Rhine ferry in Kaub reads, "Ferry suspended due to low water levels."
- German states including North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saarland relaxed trucking curbs this weekend to ease transport bottlenecks caused by low water levels on the Rhine.
- Shipping will continue between the ports of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Antwerp, as well as on tributaries including the Main, Moselle, and Neckar rivers and the Main-Danube Canal, Schwanen noted, maintaining connections outside the affected Middle Rhine section.
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76 Articles
The navigation on one of the main European commercial arteries is likely to stop in Germany: in Kaub, between Coblenz and Mainz, the water is at the lowest levels ever recorded. In crisis also Danube and Vistula
Already at unprecedented low levels due to the lack of sustained rainfall, the Rhine could soon become unsurpassed throughout its course in Germany and may remain cut in two, the German Federation of Inland Navigation (BDB) warned Monday, reports AFP.
Parts of Germany's Rhine could become unnavigable, group warns
Levels have been at record lows since the end of July as Germany, like elsewhere in Europe, struggles through a series of heatwaves. Cargo ships have managed to continue transporting goods along the waterway, which flows through the industrial heartland of Europe's top economy, albeit with reduced loads and at higher costs. But the BDB association of inland shipping warned the water level at the town of Kaub -- used as a reference point for ves…
Low water levels and a lack of rain could cut the Rhine River in two, halting shipping on the middle section of one of Europe's largest rivers, the German shipping association BDB told the Rheinische Post newspaper.
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