On a dark blue camping chair, Monika Schneider sits on Saturday morning in the middle of what is usually one of Europe’s most important lifelines. Inland shipping on the German Rhine earns around 80 billion euros annually, hundreds of millions of tons of cargo pass through the place where Schneider is now based. But she makes no move to leave. ‘I grew up on the Rhine’, says the sixties. “But I’ve never experienced this. This is very special.’
In the bend before Kaub, a town between Koblenz and Mainz where the German Rhine is at its narrowest, a large part of the river has dried up. Due to the lack of rainwater in Kaub or further along the river, a beach has been created that is about two hundred meters wide and three hundred meters long. The bone-dry river deposit of shells, boulders and stones is a great place to soak up the sun. Schneider is the first to find out on Saturday morning, later more holidaymakers will follow on this pop-up beach.
‘Normally the water gets so high here,’ says Michael Haas, who stands in the river water in his sandals, holding his hand at the height of his crown. “It’s nice for him,” he says, pointing to his dog Keno, who has cooled down in the low water. ‘But for the skippers it is to be hoped that it will rain again soon.’
Crucial for German trade
For the Romans, the Rhine was already essential for trade, and two thousand years later it has lost none of its importance. The river, which flows about 70 percent through Germany, is crucial for German production and trade in car parts, food, steel, chemicals and raw materials.
The cost efficiency of the German economy depends on the water level of the Rhine. The lower the water, the lighter the ships must be loaded so as not to rub against the river bed. At a position below 75 centimeters, a large container ship must limit its cargo to about thirty percent of its normal capacity, analysts at the Deutsche Bank calculated. The costs are for German industry, and therefore for German and European consumers.
On Saturday and Sunday, the Rhine at Kaub even drops below the critical limit of 40 centimeters, to a low of 37 centimeters. Reason for most large inland shipping companies to turn their inland vessels or not to send them to industry on the German Rhine at all.
Most of the transport ships sailing past Kaub on Saturday are empty, others are only slightly loaded. Freight rates are so high that it is no longer profitable for an industrial company to transport the freight. ‘I have never seen the freight rate so high’, says Cok Vinke of transport company Contargo, which was one of the first companies to decide on Friday to stop sailing. According to Vinke, there is also a real danger that ships will run aground. ‘We can use those ships much better elsewhere.’
The Rhine is not very navigable everywhere. Still, the alternatives are scarce: it is much less transportable by truck, and the German rail is busy. The roads would be full, passenger trains would stop. ‘That doesn’t help,’ expects Vinke.
‘All the fish are gone’
Achim Hempfl (71), who combines a cup of coffee on the terrace of the local bakery with a cigarette, shrugs. ‘I’ve always lived in Kaub, and when I was very little the water was very low. I don’t worry about anything, at other times the water comes up in the streets here. It does belong here. All we can do is hope for some rain.’
Eduard Hinz (41) drives about ten times a year 160 kilometers with his father and his son to his permanent place near Kaub, for a fishing weekend. Three rods, as many stretchers and a gas burner. They don’t have much more. ‘No people, peace and quiet, a wonderful tradition’, he says with a smile. He pulls in his rod again, but only grass is left on it. ‘We haven’t caught any fish all day. There is far too little oxygen here, all the fish are gone.’
He was also here in November 2018, when the Rhine fell to its lowest measured height of 25 centimeters near Kaub. “But this year it seems worse, the water still came up to that tree here.” Hinz points to a tree that is now ten feet from the water. Other residents of Kaub also believe that the drought on Saturday will be worse than in 2018.
Adjustments only in 2030
For the time being, 2018 really remains the measured depth record, but the low level of the Rhine could hit Germany harder this year than it was four years ago. Due to energy shortages and the German intention to become independent from Russian gas, German coal-fired power stations are working overtime. The coal arrives almost exclusively through the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp; a quarter of all German energy comes from imported coal. According to a report by research firm S&P Global, seen by news agency BloombergGermany can only bring in two-thirds of the coal it needs this winter.
For example, a hot and dry summer can mean a rough winter in German living rooms. Last year, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, where Kaub is located, was one of the regions hardest hit by the floods that also hit Limburg: 135 people died. According to the German conservation organization Nabu, extreme weather conditions will continue to plague the Rhine and other rivers. But crucial adjustments to the Rhine, to gain more control over the supply and transit of water, are not planned until 2030.
Showers are forecast in Kaub on Monday.