A broken down barge blocked the Rhine in western Germany on Wednesday.

The boat found itself immobilized at a crucial point for river navigation, already complicated due to the drought.

Traffic on the section between St Goar and Oberwesel, located between the cities of Mainz and Koblenz, was to resume during the day, according to the river police.

The barge is beached not far from Kaub, a bottleneck of the Rhine for river transport and where the reference depth gauge is located.

A broken down barge today blocked the Rhine in western Germany at a crucial point for river navigation, already complicated due to lack of water, authorities announced #AFP pic.twitter.com /F1LJfs9fS4

— Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) August 17, 2022

Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent

By clicking on "

I ACCEPT

", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners

I ACCEPT

And to better remunerate 20 Minutes, do not hesitate to accept all cookies, even for one day only, via our "I accept for today" button in the banner below.

More information on the Cookie Management Policy page.


A crucial river for maritime transport

With the drought, the water level has been below the critical threshold of 40 cm for a week, making river navigation more and more complicated.

If the level on the gauge does not correspond to the actual depth of the river, it reflects its navigability: the lower the level, the less the barges can load, reducing transport capacity, particularly of hydrocarbons.

The prospect of a partial halt to traffic on the Rhine, one of the busiest rivers in the world, poses a new headache for German industry, already strained by the Russian gas crisis and soaring gas prices. energy with the war in Ukraine.

About 4% of freight is transported by sea in Germany.

The Rhine has its source in Switzerland and crosses several countries, including France and Germany, before flowing into the sea in the Netherlands.

The river has regained prominence in recent months as Germany has increased its coal supply to reduce its dependence on Russian gas.

Planet

Drought: Four large Swiss lakes at their lowest for the month of August

Planet

Haute-Savoie: The level of Lake Annecy drops by one centimeter per day

  • Drought

  • Rhine

  • Germany

  • Boat

  • Maritime transport

  • World