Deep trouble for river shipping as drought threatens crucial waterways
Europe faces worst drought in 500 years, China’s golden waterway runs dry after record heatwave.
PHOTO: Very low water in the river Rhine reveals some old bikes in the river, 5 August 2022. Getty Images
A lack of rainfall and soaring temperatures are drying up rivers in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States. Record-breaking droughts are being declared around the world. Europe is facing the worst drought in 500 years, according to a report by the European Drought Observatory (EDO).
Economically vital rivers like Rhine and Danube which pass through some of the biggest European economies are running dry. China’s economic artery and world’s third longest river, Yangtze, is running dry amid the worst drought in country’s modern history. United States’ largest reservoir is down to a Tier 2 shortage due to the worst drought in 1,200 years.
These historic droughts are threatening to cripple sectors of global shipping and hold up transport of coal and oil around the world’s biggest economies.
Heatwave dries up European inland rivers
Europe relies heavily on water for cargo transportation, and critically low water levels in rivers like the Rhine, Danube and Po have rendered ships unusable. Due to a reduction in shipping loads, coal and oil transport has also been adversely affected.
The Rhine connects the German, Dutch and Swiss economies to Rotterdam, Europe’s biggest. While the water level at the chokepoint of Kaub, near Frankfurt, has rebounded since plunging to 32 centimetres in depth on 15 August, the German government forecasts it to fall back down to 71 centimetres on Monday.
According to data by Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine about 200 million mt of cargo is transported on the river through the German-Dutch border every year, while an estimated 310 million mt of goods are transported annually through the Dutch section of the river.
The shipping fleet traversing the Rhine waterway is estimated to total about 6,900 vessels with a cargo carrying capacity of 10 million mt. Of these, 1,200 vessels are pushed barges, 4,400 motor cargo vessels and 1,300 tankers.
The Danube, which snakes its way through 10 European countries, is gummed up too. The river is a strategically important route to access inland ports, especially in landlocked nations. It enables them to ship goods to and from Central and Southeast Europe, and further south to the Black Sea for export.
The Rhine-Main-Danube Canal also makes up a critical trans-European water corridor from the North Sea via the Rhine and Danube to the Black Sea.
PHOTO: Poyang Lake in the Yangtze River Basin in Nanchang during a drought on 21 August. EcoWatch
China’s artery blocked after worst drought on record
Shipping has ground to a halt in the Yangtze River after China recorded the worst drought in recent memory. Chinese officials observe that water level on the main trunk of the Yangtze and the flood basin lakes of Dongting and Poyang are now at least 4.85 metres (16ft) shallower than normal - and the lowest on record for the time of year.
China’s most important river, Yangtze, is a critical national transport artery. Known as the “golden shipping route” the Yangtze Economic Belt accounts for over 40% of China’s total international trade and connects the inland waterways to world’s largest container port, Shanghai. Shanghai is the axis of the golden waterway on the Yangtze River and has the largest container throughput in the world.
According to data from China’s Ministry of Transport, major ports on the Yangtze posted a total throughput of 2.02 billion mt of cargo in the first seven months of this year. Throughput of twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers shipped via Yangtze river ports in the period reached 13.67 million.
China normally releases water from the Three Gorges reservoir to relieve drought on the Yangtze, but official data shows outflows have halved compared to 2021.
By Konica Bhatt
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