Even for a summer, the Rhine carries exceptionally little water. Inland waterway skippers can only pass shallow areas with a small load. The trips are hardly worth it anymore. And the low water is also painful for many companies along Germany’s most important waterway.
The level at Kaub in Rhineland-Palatinate, which is important for shipping on the Rhine, has fallen further. According to the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration (WSV), it was 36 centimeters early on Saturday morning and thus around 6 centimeters lower than at the same time the previous day. According to a forecast by the authority, the 30 centimeter mark could be reached on Monday.
The water level does not show the actual water depth, but the difference between the water surface and the so-called zero level. Which in turn is not at the deepest point of the river bed. According to WSV information from Friday, the fairway depth at Kaub was 1.54 meters on Friday morning. According to the WSV, the depth of the fairway is lower than in Kaub in the Rhein-Lahn district in any other section of the Middle and Lower Rhine. Ultimately, it is decisive for how much freight barges can still load.
Cargo and passenger ships in particular have been struggling with low water for weeks. Inland waterway skippers must take the draft of the ship into account when loading their cargo. At low water levels, they can carry less cargo. Kaub in the Rhein-Lahn district is considered an important point for inland navigation on the Rhine.
On Friday, the WSV reported on the low water situation in the Middle and Lower Rhine that the current water levels are at an exceptionally low level for this time of year. The 14-day forecast pointed to a slight rise in water levels from mid-next week, but this will not be “significant” meaning water levels are likely to remain at low levels.
The Federal Institute for Hydrology (BfG) recently declared that up to a water level of around 30 to 35 centimeters at the Kaub gauge, shallow inland waterway vessels could still pass the Middle Rhine route. Forecasts assume water levels in the direction of 30 centimeters by the beginning of next week. Then shipping on the Rhine in this area “tends to come to a standstill,” it said.
This is because at some point transport by ship is no longer economical. Due to the low water levels, the Rhine Water and Shipping Authority (WSA) does not impose any restrictions on shipping. The WSV explained until when a transport is nautically possible and economically viable, depends on many factors such as the characteristics of the respective ship or freight rates as well as the contractual regulations of the bargemen.
The President of the General Directorate for Waterways and Shipping, Hans-Heinrich Witte, told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” that he expected ships to sail the Rhine this year despite the persistent drought. When the water level is low, these could then transport considerably less freight. “That means: cargo space on ships is scarce,” said the head of the authority. This also makes it difficult to transport coal and oil on the Rhine. “Then a lot has to be done by road and rail.”
According to the economist Stefan Kooths from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the economic consequences of the low water level in the Rhine are painful. “Calculations on the consequences of the 2018 low water level in the Rhine show that industrial production falls by around one percent if the water levels at the Kaub measuring point have fallen below the critical mark of 78 centimeters for a period of 30 days,” explained Kooths.
At its peak, industrial production fell by around 1.5 percent in 2018, Kooths continued. Over the year, the low water is likely to have cost around 0.4 percent of economic output. “However, the situation at that time cannot be transferred one-to-one to today,” explained the scientist. The “height of fall” for German industrial production was much greater at the time.
