Ships on IJssel restricted to one-way traffic as drought lingers
Highways agency Rijkswaterstaat has imposed a one-way system on the IJssel river in the east of the country because of...
The Dutch highways agency Rijkswaterstaat has implemented a one-way system on the IJssel river in the eastern part of the country due to dwindling river levels. Ships traveling from Arnhem to Zutphen will now have to take a detour of up to 300 kilometers on Friday morning. The shallow water channel in the river prevents ships from passing each other.
The prolonged summer drought has caused major Dutch rivers, including the Rhine, to reach historically low levels. At the point where the Rhine enters the Netherlands from Germany, known as Lobith, the flow is a mere 600 cubic meters per second. This has dealt a significant blow to the inland waterway sector, which has already been forced to limit its operations.
Andries de Weerd, a spokesman for Koninklijke Binnenvaart Nederland, the organization representing inland waterway users, expressed concern over the additional costs that will result from this measure, stating that they have already been operating on reduced loads.
Written by urgent.news from DutchNews's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
