German shippers warn Rhine could be 'split in two' by low water
BERLIN: Low water levels risk halting cargo traffic on a key stretch of the Rhine this week, effectively splitting the critical waterway into two separate zones, the federal association of German inland shipping (BDB) said on Monday.
Low water levels on the Rhine river are threatening to split it into two separate sections, according to the German inland shipping association. Managing director Jens Schwanen of the BDB warned that water levels at the Kaub gauging station, a critical bottleneck, are expected to drop to single digits due to insufficient rainfall.
This drop would render commercial shipping, day trips, and cruise traffic impossible in the affected region. The Rhine, which normally remains navigable from Amsterdam to the west German canal network and farther south along tributaries, would effectively be divided in two. Despite some relaxation of trucking curbs in North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saarland, the shallow water has increased costs for freight shipping and limited cargo capacity to just 20 percent of normal levels.
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