The consequences of the drought are increasing for boat traffic in France. The latest assessment of waterways in France reports 521 km of rivers, rivers or canals closed to traffic and 1,300 km affected in one way or another. In total, this represents one sixth of the waterways in France.
Also, cruise passengers must improvise. Marc Bostin, for example, owns five boats. They can carry eight to twelve people. They are spread over Loiret, Alsace, Champagne, and Burgundy where part of the canal between Tonnerre and Migennes is now cut off from traffic. He will therefore have to review all the reservations and, in a way, redesign the cruise.
“We will have to change all our logistics. For reservations for visits, restaurants, as well as moorings. And because of the closure of canals, we have to reorganize everything.
Marc Bostinat franceinfo
The cruise line has already had to cut a day and a half of navigation in the Loiret. He has already experienced this type of situation in 2019. There are also cuts in Nancy and group passages of locks to limit water consumption.
The situation will also complicate the task of freight carriers: this is the case on the Rhine Canal, which is more than 1,200 km long towards the North Sea. Its throughput is now twice as low as normal. Twenty million tonnes of freight are counted at the Gambsheim lock in the Bas-Rhin. The boats are mainly Belgian and German. And further north, they can no longer pass at full capacity. This holds on the French side, but not beyond, explains Vincent Steimer, director of territorial units of waterways in France.
“It is really the sector which is located downstream of the last dam, which extends into Germany and the Netherlands, which is binding, he explains. There, the river is not developed and when the flows decrease, the heights of water available to pass the boats also decrease.
“The boats must therefore lighten up in order to be able to pass these sectors: today, in these places, they only load at a third of their capacity.”
Vincent Steimer, Director of Territorial Units of Waterways of Franceat franceinfo
There are just under 7,000 km of waterways in France. The occupancy rate at the beginning of the month was 60% against the usual average of 80%. There have already been low levels in some summers, but not so early.