The Rhine is a patient river, and its strong-nerved residents are used to a lot.

When the river bed of the Rhine becomes too narrow after the snow has melted in the Alps or after days of continuous rain and it floods the B 42 embankment road, the people of the Rheingau patiently accept the flood water diversion through the vineyards, and in Walluf some citizens only get there via footbridges to their houses near the shore.

Oliver Bock

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Rheingau-Taunus district and for Wiesbaden.

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If, on the other hand, the summer drought causes the water level to drop, algae proliferate in the still water zones and the Rhine regularly releases World War II bombs.

But that's no cause for nervousness.

Unlike after heavy rain in narrow stream valleys like the Ahr Valley, those who live on the Rhine have enough time to prepare for extreme situations.

A flood wave is already apparent days before at the Maxau level near Karlsruhe, and steadily falling levels as well.

Rhine residents also have a practiced eye for the many cargo ships and tankers on the river.

As their number gradually dwindles and those who remain are less and less laden, the low tide approaches alarming levels.

The fairway is deeper than the water level

This impression is objectively supported by the data from the Rhine gauges, which anyone can call up via the ELWIS information system of the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration.

Accordingly, the Kaub level has fallen by almost ten to 52 centimeters since Wednesday last week.

Forecasts predict a further drop to 43 centimeters by Saturday.

In October three years ago it was only 25 centimeters.

In 2003, which was also hot and dry, it was around 30 centimeters.

A few kilometers upstream, near Oestrich, the Rhine level reached the 73 centimeter mark on Tuesday morning.

At the same time on August 3, it was 79 centimeters.

On Saturday it should only be 66 centimeters.

The lowest known water level was 31 centimeters in 1947.

But that does not mean that the Rhine can then be waded through.

Because the depth of the fairway corresponds to the water level, but where the ships sail, there is significantly more water above the ground than where the water level gauge is.

Such water levels are not particularly dangerous.

The water police even note fewer incidents and accidents because all skippers are highly concentrated and everyone has carefully matched their cargo to the draft of their ship.

In contrast to high water, the state does not intervene with rules on traffic on the Rhine when the water is low.

The market regulates that.

If inland vessels can only take on so little cargo due to their draft that it is no longer economically worthwhile, the ships stay in the ports.

The steadily falling water levels have been worrying the industry since the beginning of July.

Because the low water hits the industry in a difficult phase.

More coal needs to be moved if the coal-fired power plants are to run during the energy crisis.

There is not enough capacity to distribute the cargo across several ships.

And on land, truck drivers are scarce.

First light-weight tanker from BASF

Far-sighted companies invest in special ships that can carry sufficient cargo even at low tide.

BASF expects to launch its first lightweight low-water tanker this year.

The ship should be able to pass through the bottleneck near Kaub with 650 tons of cargo even at a water level of 30 centimeters.

It would be important for shipping that all six bottlenecks in the Rheingau and in the Middle Rhine Valley between Rhine kilometers 508 and 557, which are a hindrance to all shipping on the 1230-kilometer federal waterway Rhine, are eliminated.

However, as is usual with projects to upgrade traffic routes in Germany, this will take decades.

After all, the first test drillings have recently taken place in the Middle Rhine, and the project, which costs more than 60 million euros, is anchored in the Federal Transport Routes Plan as an “urgent need”.

But before 2030, the realization is not to be thought of.

Also because there is a lack of engineers.

Chiselling out the bottleneck in the Rhine bed is easier than regulating the flow of the Rhine, such as the Main and other tributaries, with barrages.

Plans discussed in the past to build barrages between Iffezheim and Mannheim or even in the Rheingau were rejected decades ago for ecological and economic reasons.

Lorch ferry is relocated to Mittelheim

Not only the 50,000 cargo ships with a total of 60 million tons of cargo that pass through the Middle Rhine Valley between Wiesbaden and Sankt Goar every year need enough water under their keel.

Also the ferries.

It will be tight for the Mittelheim ferry Michael this week because, according to ferry operator Michael Maul, the fairway in Winkl Bay is too narrow and flat for the large ship.

But because the Lorch flat-water ferry can no longer operate either, it is relocated to Mittelheim.

At least for those who wanted to go from Mittelheim to Ingelheim, this is good news, the ferry team says: "Everything is going as usual.

Let's hope for rain."