Drought and vessel scale problem for Rhine shipping

Gaston Pius is a board member of the Association of Inland and Rhine Shipowners (VBR) and has been sailing on the Rhine since his youth. “Originally, the channel of the Rhine in the mountains was only wide enough for a boat. The river was made wider and deeper and later locks were built on the Upper Rhine. The intention was to build locks beyond the German-French border, but they stopped at Iffezheim. The river was not canalised further,” he outlines one of the reasons for today’s low-water problems.