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Why some cargo ships can no longer navigate Europe's busiest trade route · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: The Star's heat waves and lack of rain have led
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: to a sharp drop in the levels of Germany's inland waterways.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: The Rhine River's water level has sunk to record lows.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: That's taking a heavy toll on commercial shipping, as vessels
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: have to take lighter loads or not run at all.
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  Speaker 2: It is according to the great German romantic poet Friedrich
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  Speaker 2: heerdelin The Noblest of Rivers, the Freeborn Rhine. But a
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  Speaker 2: sustained heat wave and little precipitation have brought this mighty
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  Speaker 2: river low dangerously low, posing major challenges for German industry.
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  Speaker 2: A week ago it was the exposure of rex and
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  Speaker 2: war debris, including this bomb, on the river bank in Cologne.
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  Speaker 2: But now commercial shipping along the full length of the
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  Speaker 2: Rhine River could soon become impossible. The current level is
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  Speaker 2: already threatening the economy and logistics sector, which depends on
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  Speaker 2: the waterway for supply chain efficiency. Yes, it is of
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  Speaker 2: course a very challenging situation. We have record low levels
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  Speaker 2: on the Rhine and also in the harbor. That means
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  Speaker 2: it presents us with big challenges that we have to overcome.
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  Speaker 2: Others supporting transportation methods are also fragile. It seems the
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  Speaker 2: only plan is to wait for rain. We are already
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  Speaker 2: at the point where not much more is needed before
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  Speaker 2: nothing works at all, and currently it's always difficult to
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: make forecasts over a longer period. We probably won't be
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: able to really breathe a sigh of relief until around
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  Speaker 2: mid to late September, when more rainfall is expected. The
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  Speaker 2: danger of the river becoming unnavigable now seems all too real.
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  Speaker 2: North Rhine Westphalia's transportation minister is calling for more funding
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  Speaker 2: from the federal government to tackle the problem. Scientists warned
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  Speaker 2: as long as twenty years ago that the Rhine could
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  Speaker 2: carry very little water or in extreme cases, even run dry.
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  Speaker 2: We are now seeing that such scenarios which were many
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  Speaker 2: laughed at in the past and now threatening to become
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  Speaker 2: a reality. The climate crisis is hitting us with full force,
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  Speaker 2: and that is why we must take action on climate protection.
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  Speaker 2: As climate change induced heat waves ravage Europe with wildfires,
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  Speaker 2: the Rhine, a key artery for many industries in Germany,
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  Speaker 2: is drying up.
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  Speaker 1: DW reporter Earleen Spante is covering this story and joins
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  Speaker 1: us now from Kalb on the banks of the river.
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  Speaker 1: Rhine Alean. What's the river like where you are?
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  Speaker 3: Well, the air feels hot and dry, and I'm standing
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  Speaker 3: in a river bed right now that is very dry,
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  Speaker 3: and normally you would see water here, but right now
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  Speaker 3: I'm just standing on dry ground. The stones they are gray.
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  Speaker 3: They are covered in mud with dry mud that is
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  Speaker 3: cracking because of the summer heat. And I send some
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  Speaker 3: yeah smell of elgai in the air because the river
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  Speaker 3: bank is way more dry than usual. And if I
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  Speaker 3: look right and left, I see the trees and they
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  Speaker 3: don't have green, lush leaves. The leaves they are yellow,
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  Speaker 3: they are brown, and they are just suffering from yeah
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  Speaker 3: to a little water. It was very hot over the
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  Speaker 3: last days and weeks, and that's why water levels were
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  Speaker 3: running low here at the Rhine River, one of the
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  Speaker 3: most important transport rivers in Europe and Germany's most important
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  Speaker 3: transport river.
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  Speaker 1: So we can see a little bit of water behind
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  Speaker 1: you there in the river, but you're obviously standing at
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  Speaker 1: a place where normally there would be quite a bit
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  Speaker 1: of water in the Rhine River that would be carrying boats.
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  Speaker 1: There are concerns that this low water, that low water
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  Speaker 1: levels brought on by climate change could make the Rhine impassible,
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  Speaker 1: effectively splitting it into tell us what that would mean
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  Speaker 1: for shipping.
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  Speaker 3: There are concerns, indeed, there were yeah, concerns that the
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  Speaker 3: Rhine could split into or break into as soon as
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  Speaker 3: this week, effectively making the river unpossible. You'll have to
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  Speaker 3: imagine it like that, that around this location where I'm
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  Speaker 3: standing on right now, there's a critical stretch where water
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  Speaker 3: levels are especially low, and here is the critical markers
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  Speaker 3: where shippers decide if they can continue shipping or not.
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  Speaker 3: So when we talk about splitting the river in two,
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  Speaker 3: it effectively means that there is the stretch here that
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  Speaker 3: there could be unpossible because of low water levels for
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  Speaker 3: many ships. And then if you would go more north
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  Speaker 3: towards important ports of Belgium and Netherlands and in Germany,
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  Speaker 3: that this would be one section that is still possible
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  Speaker 3: for ships, but that then would be disconnected because this dry,
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  Speaker 3: dry stretch where I'm standing on right now is unpassible.
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  Speaker 3: And then you would have the second part that would
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  Speaker 3: go more towards south and into southeast Europe. So you
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  Speaker 3: could see it as a split because for many ships it's, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it's not possible to pass here anymore. But authorities were
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  Speaker 3: pretty clear that they said, we are not prohibiting shipping.
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  Speaker 3: So there are some ships for which it's still possible
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  Speaker 3: to pass here. It's often special ships that are designed
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  Speaker 3: for low water, so some ships can still pass through,
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  Speaker 3: but it's more a handful of ships that can pass through.
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  Speaker 3: But usually it's dozens and many many ships they cannot
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  Speaker 3: pass anymore. So it's not a split that the authorities
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  Speaker 3: say it's prohibited. It's more that companies have to decide
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  Speaker 3: if it's still profitable for them, because, of course, if
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  Speaker 3: a ship can load only very very little containers, then
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  Speaker 3: it becomes very expensive for the clients. I talked to
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  Speaker 3: one shipper and he told me he's now charging ten
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  Speaker 3: times as much. So the shipping company has to decide
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  Speaker 3: is still profitable. The client has to decide, am I
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  Speaker 3: willing to pay this? And yes, it's still possible to ship,
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  Speaker 3: it's just way more expensive. So many ships, Yeah, they
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  Speaker 3: have to decide, Okay, it's not possible for me, But
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  Speaker 3: authorities are saying we will not prohibit shipping.
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  Speaker 1: So you're getting into the economics of this, and the
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  Speaker 1: implications are profound. The rine is one of Europe's key
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  Speaker 1: trade routes. What's being done to limit the impact on
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  Speaker 1: communities and businesses well.
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  Speaker 3: A short term fix that has recently been introduced is
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  Speaker 3: that Germany now is breaking its own rule. Normally trucks
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: cannot drive on Sundays, but now in some states trucks
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  Speaker 3: are allowed to drive on Sunday. So this helps to
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  Speaker 3: bridge the critical stretch with trucks. But the problem here
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  Speaker 3: is that most of those trucks they are still running
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: on fossil fuels, and that of course creates a mission
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  Speaker 3: which contributes to climate change and river drouts, which is
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  Speaker 3: one of the reasons why we are in the situation
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  Speaker 3: at the first place. So this is only a short
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: term fix, but of course the impact on local communities
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  Speaker 3: and on the industry is huge. We already saw some
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  Speaker 3: companies that had to reduce their capacity. I just talked
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  Speaker 3: to one worker from Yeah, from a chemical company, and
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  Speaker 3: he told me Yeah is his boss told him he
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  Speaker 3: doesn't have to come the next days because they cannot operate.
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  Speaker 3: Saying for the ferries here, the ferries are not crossing anymore.
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  Speaker 3: And I just spoke to some disappointed tourists that came
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  Speaker 3: here to Germany to visit the pitters castles that are
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  Speaker 3: next to the Rhine, but they couldn't cross because the
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  Speaker 3: ferries can't operate. And then I talked to one of
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  Speaker 3: the workers from the ferry and he also told me
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  Speaker 3: his boss told him expect that we're going back to
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: work within days or weeks. So there's impact on tourism,
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  Speaker 3: there's impact on local residents, but also very significantly there's
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  Speaker 3: impact on the German industry. There are just some freight that, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: you need the ships to carry this bulky stuff, and
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  Speaker 3: the chemical industry relies on it, the steel industry and yeah,
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  Speaker 3: if those ships can't run, it means they can't get
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: their own material. So it's those heavy, bulky things that
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: are difficult now to transport. But also for example, soybeans
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  Speaker 3: with which you can feed animal and that in the
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  Speaker 3: long run will also or can show in the prices
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  Speaker 3: in the supermarket, because if the transportation becomes more expensive
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  Speaker 3: in the beginning, it may hit the industry more, but
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  Speaker 3: in the end you can also see it in the supermarkets.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: This is not the first time that the Ryan is
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: experiencing exceptionally low water levels. I as a journalist, have
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  Speaker 1: covered it before, have previous episodes led to any changes
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  Speaker 1: or improvements that are helping today.
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  Speaker 3: That is indeed not the first time. But what special
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  Speaker 3: this year is that the low water levels came way
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  Speaker 3: early in the year than many expected. There are some
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  Speaker 3: shipping companies that were prepared. It was on one of
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  Speaker 3: the ships that was a special ship that was especially
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  Speaker 3: designed for low water. You can imagine it more like
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  Speaker 3: a box that is floating, more bulky instead of being
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  Speaker 3: designed streamlined, and it also had a smaller propeller so
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  Speaker 3: it can operate on those low water levels. So those
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  Speaker 3: kind of special ships they can still pass through here
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  Speaker 3: even if water levels are low. But the problem is
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  Speaker 3: that when water levels are higher, those ships are not
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  Speaker 3: as efficient, which means shipping co companies they have to
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  Speaker 3: invest in those special ships. It's expensive, they are not
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  Speaker 3: as efficient when water levels are higher. So yes, they
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: are prepared, but it's also a disadvantage for those shipping
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  Speaker 3: companies if they have to run those ships with higher
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  Speaker 3: water levels. But yeah, those special ship designs is one
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  Speaker 3: of the learnings we have from the past. And also
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  Speaker 3: Germany is now working out an early alert system so
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  Speaker 3: shop shipping companies know earlier if water levels are going
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: to drop so they can prepare themselves.
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  Speaker 1: Aleen, thank you so much. That was CW's Aleen spante
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  Speaker 1: on the River Rhine.