Karin De schepper is general secretary of inland navigation Europe,
the body that promotes the use of waterways as an alternative form of
goods transport. she says there is a desire on the continent to develop
the rivers and canals further as viable alternatives to road and rail.
“Demand is still growing and there is plenty of space available on
Europe’s rivers,” says De schepper. and it isn’t only the Rhine that is
becoming busier: there is also growth in France. De schepper points
to the increased freight now moving along the link between Marseille
and Lyon, with sea-going traffic heading inland to Lyon and further to
Dijon. Growth has also been marked on the seine, where more freight
is now moving from Le Havre and Rouen to the paris area.
River deep
of course, continued growth will require continued investment.
some £4bn is currently being spent on the cross-border seine-
scheldt canal project, designed to remove the current bottlenecks in
Belgium and northern France.
Developing and maintaining rivers and canals as viable means of
transport has serious short-term cost implications, both financial and
environmental (even though moving goods by water uses far less
energy than road). indeed, according to the inland Waterways
26 association, water transport generates 40-66g/tonnes-km of Co
2
,
compared to between 207 and 280 for road.
Despite the obvious and immediate benefits of river transport,
De schepper admits that managing development is a delicate task.
“if people want to use the waterways properly, the infrastructure has
to be right,” she says. “Bottlenecks hinder smooth sailing, so it’s a
priority for operators to make sure they are addressed.”
The most common way to increase capacity on rivers is dredging.
However, while the techniques used have improved over the years,
large-scale dredging projects can cause major disruption to the
environment. only recently have the impacts of dredging been tackled.
“in the past, the methods for widening and updating waterways
have been too damaging to the environment,” De schepper says.
“However, today, each big project will see 40-50 per cent of the
earmarked funds going to environmental compensation measures.”
These can include anything from investing in more sophisticated
dredgers to ensure wetlands remain intact, to reducing impact on
the
haLf of the uk
popuLation
shipping
2
,
200
Lives within
35
,
000
nUmbers
miLes of waterways
five miLes of a
kiLometres of
in the uk
1
CanaL or river
1
waterways in

europe
1
[Sources: 1. British Waterways, 2. Inland
Navigation Europe, 3. Transport for London
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52