The World Canals Conference reverted to an on-site event in June 2024 after an on-line version in 2023. The event was based in Bydgoszcz in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region of Poland, where the Rivers Brda and Wisła (Vistula) meet, along with the old and new Bydgoszcz Canals.
Inland waterways can play a pivotal role in the EU’s efforts to decarbonise the transport system, according to the Council of the European Union. In December 2022, the Council voted to approve the conclusions of the NAIADES III report on ‘Ongoing development of inland waterways transport’.
IWI is a member go the ‘Think Climate’ coalition under the auspices of PIANC (The World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure), working on a far-reaching initiative Navigating a Changing Climate.
A milestone in development of the European waterway network for 3000-tonne barges and push-tows was marked on Tuesday 4 October when the 36m-high Niederfinow shiplift was officially opened, on the Havel-Oder Canal.
The first vessel to pass through the new lift, with its striking architecture, was the Waterway Authority’s icebreaker Frankfurt. Barges and tankers up to 115m long can now transport cargoes between the Polish port of Szceczin and Berlin and beyond.
When we visited the site in May 2022, before attending the World Canals Conference in Leipzig, we saw that even a single-barge Polish push-tow had to split to pass through the original lift, opened in 1933, with its usable length of only 83.50m.
IWI is sad to report that Robin Evans, who presided over the transformation of British Waterways into the independent Canal & River Trust in 2012, died in early September after a short illness. Robin joined British Waterways in 1999 as commercial director, becoming chief executive in 2002. Alongside chairman Tony Hales, Robin led the work to develop the concept of a new charity for the
Ninety years after it was opened in the Eastern Moravia region of the Czech Republic, the Baťa Canal is being extended for recreational navigation. IWI’s upcoming magazine (issue No. 39) will give details of this ambitious project implemented by the Directorate of Waterways of the Czech Republic in partnership with the region and local authorities. When the current works are complete, the waterway will extend from Kroměříž
The World Canals Conference reverted to an on-site event in June 2024 after an on-line version in 2023. The event was based in Bydgoszcz in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region of Poland, where the Rivers Brda and Wisła (Vistula) meet, along with the old and new Bydgoszcz Canals.
IWI is supporting a new campaign, Fund Britain’s Waterways (FBW), recently launched by the Inland Waterways Association. FBW is a coalition of organisations representing hundreds of thousands of users and supporters of inland waterways. The aim is to secure more permanent and stable funding for the country’s waterways, which are currently facing the challenges of keeping vulnerable infrastructure safe and operational, with severely limited resources.
IWI was represented in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, for a waterways conference run by the Inland Navigation Commission of sister organisation PIANC, on November 27-29, 2023. Members who contributed to this fascinating report are Jim Stirling, who as technical director of British Waterways Scotland oversaw the construction of the Falkirk Wheel, and Marc Michaux, chief engineer in charge of works on the Strépy-Thieu shiplift in Wallonia, Belgium.
IWI president Rudy Van der Ween, also now vice-chairman of the World Canal Cities Organisation, attended the COP 28 conference in Dubai, at the invitation of WCCO. A pavilion was devoted to the annual Global Canal Rowing Action. Cities around the world, including Yangzhou, China (Grand Canal) and Dubai, UAE, joined hands to promote canal culture and the concept of low-carbon environmental protection for sustainable development.
The design was suggested by students who took part in a competition before the WCC was held in Leipzig on May 31-June 3, 2022. As shown in the film, it incorporates the complete upper lock chamber as built in the late 1930s before World War II stopped the works.
During his visit to Guilin in China, on June 1, 2023, IWI’s past president Rudy Van der Ween was shown the works in progress to create a new waterway in Southwest China: the Pinglu Canal. The new canal, to open in 2026, is expected to boost combined transport in Guangxi Province and beyond, reducing the distance for waterborne freight from Beibu Gulf to the provincial capital Nanning by no less than 565 km.
Following Covid disruption to the planned WCC schedule, there is no in-person conference in 2023. In its place, IWI is hosting a series of ‘webinars’ covering important waterways issues, presented by experts from all over the world.
Two hundred years after the grand opening of the Erie Canal, Buffalo invites the world’s canal community back to New York State’s ‘Queen City’, for the World Canals Conference in September 2025. Governor DeWitt Clinton’s inaugural voyage began here on 25 October 1825, culminating in the famous ‘Wedding of the Waters’ ceremony in New York Harbor.
Inland waterways can play a pivotal role in the EU’s efforts to decarbonise the transport system, according to the Council of the European Union. In December 2022, the Council voted to approve the conclusions of the NAIADES III report on ‘Ongoing development of inland waterways transport’.
The Inland Waterways Pavilion assembled by IWI for members at Boot Düsseldorf attracted great interest. See a film made by the Serbian Nautical TV channel Nautika TV. The focus is on the Danube Propeller stand, but the video gives an excellent overview of the whole pavilion. Danube Propeller & IWI 2019 at boot Düsseldorf – NAUTIKA TV Show Presentation.