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‘Drought measures are a double-edged sword for inland shipping’

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Now that the Rhine is virtually unnavigable, there is also growing concern in our country about the low water level. De Tijd boarded an inland skipper on the Dessel-Kwaadmechelen canal. ‘I sailed 13.5 hours on a route on the Albert Canal this week, while that normally takes 8.5 hours.’

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‘I am already the fourth generation of inland skippers in my family,’ says Captain Richard Kruisinga, sitting in his captain’s chair. He does not steer the ship with a large rudder, but with a row of buttons and two modest joysticks. On the Riga, a relatively small ship pushing a huge pontoon in front of it, there are two crew members: a sailor in the front of the engine room, and one who takes care of dinner between the activities on the ship.

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The cargo contains meter-sized parts for windmills. The cargo is so large that it requires a special permit. While an inland vessel on the canal between Dessel and Kwaadmechelen may be a maximum of 11.4 meters wide, the Riga takes up 22 meters. Sailing with it is a risky operation, especially if faster ships have to pass or oncoming traffic appears. ‘Then we have to go all the way to the right bank. Will we not hit the bottom? You can, but that’s no drama. I’ve been doing this for years. I’ll get the ship loose’, says Kruisinga.

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although Flemish waterways at their lowest level in twenty years we are not yet at extremes as in Germany, where the Rhine will sink below the critical point for cargo ships. ‘My nephew has a container ship that sails on the Rhine’, says Kruisinga. ‘Normally it can carry a load of 4,000 tons, but now it has to limit itself to just 600 tons. It’s not dramatic on this channel yet, but if the drought continues, it could cause problems here too.’

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Grouped in locks

The Flemish Waterway, which monitors the level of our waterways, will survive with a few targeted measures for the time being. Ships are connected in groups at various locks, so that less water is lost. If there are not enough ships ready to fill the lock optimally, the barge masters have to wait two hours. Where necessary, pumping installations balance the water level on both sides of the locks.

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‘We’re lucky. Together with another ship, we can enter immediately’, says Kruisinga, who steers the ship into the lock with apparent ease. Once inside, it turns out that the captain had only one meter clearance on both sides of the ship. ‘This week I sailed 13.5 hours on a route on the Albert Canal, while that normally takes 8.5 hours. There were three locks along the way, so we had to wait. Those delays are annoying for us, but they mainly cost the company money’, he says.

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Long lease

That company is Victrol, the owner of the pontoon and one of the few major players in Belgian inland shipping. The Antwerp shipping company owns various tankers, pontoons and push boats. When building new ones, business manager Gisèle Maes takes the drought into account. ‘We pay more attention to the depth. We are developing vessels that can handle more cargo without going deeper’, says Maes, who is also chairwoman of the Flemish Knowledge Center for Inland Navigation.

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Inland shipping in Belgium

Although somewhat unknown and unloved, the economic importance of inland shipping for our country is great. In 2021, 71.9 million tons of goods were transported on the Flemish waterways. That is an increase of 4.23 percent compared to a year earlier. According to the Flemish Waterway, that amount is the equivalent of 2.87 million avoided truck journeys.

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‘Many people underestimate our sector. 65 fixed container lines a week depart from Antwerp alone. This involves 50,000 ship movements per year,’ says Jo Van Duynslaeger of the Association of Belgian Shipowners of Inland and Rhine Navigation (VBR). He points to the capital-intensive nature of the sector. ‘A brand new ship can easily cost 5 to 6 million euros. Our country has approximately 1,200 ships, 95 percent of which are in the hands of small inland skippers, who work with their wives and a sailor.’

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“The last time the water level was extremely low was in 2018,” she says. ‘We then tried to limit the risks by focusing even more on the long-term rental of ships.’ Customers then lease the same ships for years at a fixed price. In this way, the shipping company can be sure of stable income.

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charge minder

If the drought continues and the water level continues to drop, more serious government interventions will be necessary. Initially a loading restriction, as it already applies on the Ghent-Terneuzen canal. Because ships are allowed to berth less deep, they can carry less cargo. ‘Such measures are a double-edged knife’, says Jo Van Duynslaeger, chairman of the Association of Belgian Shipowners of Inland and Rhine Navigation (VBR). ‘On the one hand, it is positive for the income of inland skippers, because the cargo has to be spread over more ships. Those ships are not there, so the price is rising.’

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‘On the other hand, there is a threat of a cannibalizing effect. Companies can look for alternatives, such as road and train transport.’ The government would also view this with dismay, because the Flemish government has been promoting inland shipping as a sustainable alternative to road transport for some time. Over 13 percent of all goods transported through Flanders in 2020 came by water. The ambition to increase that percentage to a fifth can draw a line from the ongoing drought.

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