Germany to invest €180m in deepening river Rhine

GERMANY yesterday promised to “accelerate” efforts to make the Rhine resistant to the effects of climate change, as it announced plans to invest €180million (£154million) in the river.

“This is an emergency in the truest sense of the word,” said Volker Wissing, the German transport minister, after meeting industry bosses to spell out plans to deepen Europe’s most congested river.

Under current plans, Germany wants to complete a project to deepen the centre of the Rhine by around 20cm along a 30-mile stretch between St Goar and Mainz.

According to plans published in 2019, the project to deepen the river should be completed by the end of this decade.

Deepening the shipping lane would ensure that it remains passable to heavily loaded barges even during periods of drought.

Mr Wissing, 52, said that he had agreed with industry representatives to

‘[We will] put more speed in removing bottlenecks on Europe’s most important inland waterway’

set up a commission that would “pool all resources and put more speed in removing bottlenecks on Europe’s most important inland waterway”.

Germany needs to “face the facts” and realise that the effects of climate change mean that “we will have to prepare ourselves again and again for periods of extremely low water levels”, Mr Wissing said.

The Rhine’s water gauges recorded historic lows earlier this month as the continent’s key waterway suffered under the strain of one of the worst droughts to hit Europe in centuries.

With so little water flowing down the 770-mile river, barges that deliver to and from key industrial centres had to shed up to two thirds of their load, leading industry bosses to warn that production would have to be wound down.

But increased rainfall over the past fortnight has lifted water levels by half a metre, meaning barges can once again take on more weight.

The extreme strain on the river’s shipping has been exacerbated this summer as Berlin has raced to fire up mothballed coal power stations as it seeks to wean itself off Russian gas.

Many of the power stations are based on the Rhine or one of its tributaries and the coal was supposed to be imported up the river. With shipping at its maximum capacity though, Germany has had to move the coal by train.