NewsEurope's rivers are drying up and these are the...

Europe's rivers are drying up and these are the consequences

Europe’s rivers are drying up . Weeks of scorching temperatures and scant rainfall have drained the water levels of several of the major waterways that run across the continent.

The lowering of the level, which has exposed the so-called “hunger stones”, and the intense drought that already affects more than 60% of the territory of the European Union and the United Kingdom , is affecting European agriculture. However, this is not the only consequence that the low tributary of the rivers brings to the European economy.

The situation on the Rhine River in Germany and the Loire River in France is causing problems for trade and power generation, two economic sectors that have already been hit by the covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. .

Commercial shipping is limited

From the Gambsheim lock in eastern France, where 20 million tons of goods transit each year, Vincent Steimer contemplates a Dutch barge loaded only to a third of its capacity so as not to run the risk of scraping the bottom of the Rhine.

Reflecting the lack of rain since April, “the low water (the natural descent of a river) begins early this year, and the river can count less and less on the spring thaw of the alpine snows to renew itself”, underlines the director of the Territorial Units of Waterways of France (VNF).

In the Rhenish warning center, a true navigation control tower, the flows measured in various places are twice below normal values usually observed in autumn.

However, the large locks continue to fulfill their function as ship lifts, always ensuring at least three meters of depth.

Navigation difficulties are downstream, as in the Seltz ferry —which connects the French city of Seltz with the German city of Plittersdorf— where, 10 kilometers further north, rocky areas groove the course of the Rhine and metal pilings, normally submerged, reveal its rusty exterior.

The backbone of Western Europe, the Rhine meanders 1,233 kilometers along the Franco-German border and then through Germany, before emptying into the North Sea.

With 50 to 70 steps a day, there is still no decrease in the frequency of Gambsheim. However, the difficulties of river transport accumulate.

In Switzerland, where the Rhine rises, the complicated supply by river means that Bern draws on its oil product reserves until at least September.

The shallow water is causing problems for navigation on the entire river in Germany. The Rhine is one of the key canals linking Germany’s industrial centers with North Sea ports, from which products are exported to world markets.

The transport of goods by the river continues, but with ships that are sometimes forced to navigate with three quarters of their carrying capacity.

The threat of a partial closure of river traffic on this river, one of the busiest in the world, has become an additional puzzle for German industry, hit by the Russian gas crisis and the sharp increase in energy prices. because of the war in Ukraine.

Roberto Spranzi, head of DTG, a maritime transport cooperative in the industrial city of Duisburg, says that his fleet of more than 100 ships is being forced to limit cargo to prevent any of them from running aground due to lack of water.

“We have to use three or four ships, when in normal times we would only need one” to transport the same cargo, he explains to AFP.

According to specialists, the interruption could subtract half a percentage point from the growth of the Gross Domestic Product of Europe’s largest economy this year.

The situation on the Rhine worsened on Wednesday as the engine failure of a boat closed part of the waterway, German authorities said. This caused more than twenty boats to be stuck along the river.

Authorities stressed that Wednesday’s traffic jam was not due to the drop in water levels, which have reached record lows in some places due to lack of rain.

Another factor in the energy crisis

The river has grown in importance in recent months as Germany has decided to go coal to reduce its dependence on Russian gas.

The problem is that many of the large power plants are located precisely in the surroundings of the Rhine, a fundamental river for its supply.

Large German companies have warned that possible serious disturbances in river traffic will weigh on an economy affected for months by difficulties in the supply chain.

The energy group Uniper thus declared that the low level of the Rhine could translate in September into “irregular operation” of two of its coal-fired power plants. EnBW, another group operating in the Baden-Württemberg region of southwestern Germany, has warned that coal deliveries could be limited.

“The low level of the waters of the Rhine means that the transport of large loads of oil products, diesel or fuel cannot be ensured normally,” summarizes Alexander von Gersdorff, spokesman for the German professional association of energy and energy industrialists. fuels.

The Loire river also suffers

France’s Loire River, famous for the hundreds of castles that adorn its banks, is a shallow waterway at the best of times, but this year even its flat-bottomed tourist barges can barely navigate a drought-reduced water flow. record.

Even some 100 kilometers from the mouth of the Loire in the Atlantic Ocean, sandbanks stretch as far as the eye can see, large islands connect to the shore and in some places people can practically walk from one side of the river to the other. .

France’s Loire River, famous for the hundreds of castles that adorn its banks, is a shallow waterway at the best of times, but this year even its flat-bottomed tourist barges can barely navigate a drought-reduced water flow. record.

Even some 100 kilometers from the mouth of the Loire in the Atlantic Ocean, sandbanks stretch as far as the eye can see, large islands connect to the shore and in some places people can practically walk from one side of the river to the other. .

The Loire Valley – a UNESCO world heritage site famous for its majestic castles such as Chambord, Chenonceau and Azay-le-Rideau – has suffered from historically low water levels before, but this year’s drought should be a wake-up call, According to Eric Sauquet.

“The tributaries of the Loire are completely dry. It is something unprecedented,” said Sauquet, head of hydrology at the National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE). “We have to worry about the Loire.”

For fish, low water levels are disastrous. Shallow waters lose oxygen as they warm, making them easy prey for herons and other predators.

“Fish need water to live, fresh water. When water levels drop that low, their environment shrinks and they get trapped in puddles,” Sauquet said.

The flow of the river is about 40 cubic meters per second, less than a twentieth of the average annual levels. It would be even lower if the authorities did not release the water from the Naussac and Villerest dams, built in the 1980s in part to guarantee the supply of cooling water to four nuclear power plants built along the river.

The four plants, located in Belleville, Chinon, Dampierre and Saint-Laurent, have a combined capacity of 11.6 gigawatts, representing almost a fifth of French electricity production.

Given that several EDF plants are already out of service for technical reasons and others are operating at reduced capacity due to low river water levels, the closure of one or more Loire plants could push up electricity prices throughout Europe.

With information from AFP and Reuters

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