Infrastructure problems: River navigation schemes

A case of river surgery?

Ever since man began trading, rivers have been used for navigation.

Clean method of transport
Transport over water is a relatively clean method of transport, but the development of rivers for navigation often leads to irreversible destruction of river courses and negative impacts on vulnerable groups of people.

The first alterations to rivers to allow shipping date back at least 2000 years when Romans and Egyptians erected small barriers to allow sufficient water depth for their vessels during times of insufficient flow. With more technical know-how, the rate of modification has increased rapidly since the 1900s.

Of 230 major rivers in the world around 60% are considered to be seriously or moderately 'cut-up' by dams, dikes and dredging, with improved river transport often being one of the main objectives.

Western Europe's Rhine River is perhaps the best known example of navigation schemes that alter a river forever. It is arguably the busiest shipping route in the world - over 1 million containers travel up and down it each year. To make an 880 kilometre stretch of the river navigable, no less than 450 dams were built on its course and thousands of kilometres of banks were built. Meanders were removed and the Rhine has become 25% shorter as a result.

Altering a river's course and changing and bending its shape affect communities and ecosystems. As seen in the Rhine:

• Ecosystem breakdown. Migratory fish species disappeared as a result of the dams and pollution, and all typical river systems vanished including river forests, sandbanks, marshes. The modifications led to erosion of the riverbed which fell by 7 metres in places and the river lost its ability to handle large amounts of water either from melted snow in the Alps during Spring or after excessive rainfall.
• Flood damage. Heavy floods during the last ten years and billions of dollars of damage have demonstrated that one-sided development of the river for navigation was unwise. The governments of the Rhine countries - the Netherlands, Germany, France and Switzerland - now recognise this and have pledged to pay something back. Hundreds of millions of dollars are now spent annually to manage the river differently by restoring wetlands along the river and widening the river course by breaking dikes.
• Loss of a food staple. Salmon was once poor man's food: in the contract of a Dutch house maid from 1920, it was recorded that three times per week her supper would be 'Rhine Salmon'. Today, wild salmon are rare and it is unlikely that they will ever roam again freely along the course of the Rhine.

Rivers that are relatively untouched today are not immune to destruction by navigation schemes. For example, Venezuela's Orinoco River is now the focus of plans to develop the interior of the country using it to transport commodities to national and world markets. It may be possible to maintain the Orinoco 'unscarred' while meeting shipping needs. Techniques include the use of flat bottom barges. Around the world, rivers could also profit from combined railway-river transportation schemes.

One of the most recent threats is Ukraine's decision to build the Bystroye Canal in spite of protests by neighbouring communities fearing the destruction of the Danube Delta.