The Rhine is the most important water transport artery in Western Europe, but climate change threatens to lower the water level in this river, which will negatively affect shipping.
The control water level in Kauba, west of Frankfurt, can drop to a critical mark of 40 centimeters - barges are forced to sail three-quarters empty.
River vessels need about 1,5m of waterline to set sail with a full load. However, at the current level, most barges carrying energy resources cannot actually cross the river.
The Rhine is the largest waterway in Europe. Annually, about 195 million tons of goods are transported by inland waterways in Germany. Mostly along the Rhine. The vessels carry mainly bulk cargoes such as grain, gravel, sand, as well as coal, gasoline, fuel oil, chemical industry products, building materials and metal products. The Rhine connects the important industrial centers of Germany, France and Switzerland with the seaports of the Netherlands and Belgium. Both the traffic density and the volume of cargo transportation are increasing every year, but recently the seasonal shallowing of the river has become a serious problem.
This leads to an increase in prices for freight and rail transport, sea and river vessels.
