Rhine states call on German government to boost waterway funding

The four German states bordering the Rhine have called on the federal government to significantly increase funding for inland waterways, citing restrictions on river shipping caused by low water levels, according to a joint position paper released on Friday.

The paper - issued by Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia - said that while roads and rail regularly dominated transport policy debates, waterways were falling far short of needs-based maintenance despite a funding requirement of at least €2.5 billion ($2.9 billion) per year.

State representatives had met for the 8th Rhine States Conference in Wiesbaden.

"We need reliable transport routes on road, rail and waterway," said Hesse's transport minister, Kaweh Mansoori. The federal government must finance the necessary modernizations reliably, he said.

However, Mansoori cautioned that even robust infrastructure would not, in the long term, replace the water in the Rhine. "Only climate protection can help with that," he said, using a term commonly used in Germany for action on climate change.

The state secretary in the North Rhine-Westphalia transport ministry, Viktor Haase, said efforts must also focus on promoting fleets of inland vessels capable of operating reliably and economically even in extreme low-water conditions.