The Rhine is not just any river, at least not in Germany. Poets like Hölderlin or Heine erected monuments to it, and 200 years ago, Rhine Romanticism, a separate branch of painting and literature, paid homage to rivers and landscapes. The nationalists also made use of the “Rhine myth”, and books about the same still sell well today.
The river is revered, at least in theory. In practice, respect looks more mundane. Due to the heat, lack of rain and prolonged drought, the Rhine is now more of a gravel bed than flowing water in some places. And there the fear dominates that the European water highway could no longer be navigable.
Coal phase-out, climate change, sector coupling: The briefing for the energy and climate sector. For decision makers
Of course this is a huge problem. Inland shipping transports less than seven percent of goods traffic in Germany. But almost all of it ships across the Rhine. Factories and millions of people in the region depend on supplies. Added to this is the coal comeback triggered by the war in Ukraine this year, much of which, ironic of the climate crisis, would have to be transported across the dwindling river.
The dry Rhine symbolizes much of what has been missed in the past, including the planning of a future-proof infrastructure. The railway network was destroyed instead of being expanded. There are not even enough wagons to move goods from ship to rail. It is no news that ongoing climate change is making summers hotter and drier.
What is happening today is not an unexpected catastrophe, but comes after extensive announcement. And so that nobody says that nobody could have guessed that: The situation will not get any better.
We will experience summers like this more and more often. Because the CO2 content in the atmosphere is still rising steadily, and the earth is continuing to warm up. If the heat and drought are accompanied by less meltwater from the mountains, the Rhine will record new record low levels more and more frequently, possibly drying out completely in some summers. So far so bad. But what does that mean now?
Some companies and the Federal Minister of Transport are now calling for the river bed to be dug out at critical points as quickly as possible and for more water to be channeled into the fairway through the deepening of the Rhine. That sounds resolute, but it doesn’t help at all. Because even Volker Wissing expects an implementation period of up to the next decade. And that doesn’t solve the fundamental problem either. Instead of resorting to instruments of the past as a reflex, now would be the chance to really think about the future.
Because in the future it will become increasingly important to keep every drop of water in the ground, in the landscape, for as long as possible before the water ultimately flows into the sea. But when the flow deepens, the exact opposite happens. Then floodplains dry out, important habitats for fish, amphibians and plants are lost, and the drought in the soil spreads even more unchecked.
Instead of shaping nature according to technology, the opposite must happen. In the case of the Rhine, this means no longer adapting the river to the ships, but the ships to the river. For example, new ships can be built for lower water levels so that in future they can still transport large amounts of cargo when there is less river water. This is not a dream of the future: the chemical giant BASF has already developed such a tanker itself and is using it on the Rhine.
Of course, the Rhine has long since ceased to be Heine’s untamed river, where the boatman sinks in front of the Loreley. But it’s high time to finally give the river the respect it deserves. Also in our own interest.
