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Delegates gather for the opening session at the Chamber Theatre in Bydgoszcz, on 24 June 2024

WCC Bydgoszcz success

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.

EU calls for greater use of inland waterways

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’.

Navigating a Changing Climate

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.

The passenger vessel Pelikan II leaves the giant Niederfinow lift during the opening ceremony on 4 October 2022. ©Tomáš Kolařík, Plavba a vodní cesty

Giant Niederfinow shiplift, Germany

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 news

Archives: Events

WCC2019 Yangzhou

Start date: 08/07/2019
End date: 12/07/2019
Time: 12:00 am
Location: Yangzhou, China
The conference was held in Yangzhou, China. The theme, “The role of Canals in CityBetterment and Ecological Restoration”, invited the delegates to discuss how to maximize the roles of canals in improving modern human habitat from such perspectives as the restoration and maintenance of water ecology, the rational management of urban spaces as well as […]
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WCC2021 Hagerstown

Start date: 03/05/2021
End date: 07/05/2021
Time: 12:00 am
Location: Hagerstown, Maryland, USA
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Association hosted the WCC in Hagerstown, Maryland, USA, in collaboration with Visit Hagerstown and the US National Park Service. The event commemorated the 50th anniversary of creation of the  Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park. Substantial restoration works have been completed on significant sections of the canal, particularly in Georgetown, Washington, […]
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WCC2022 Leipzig

Start date: 30/05/2022
End date: 03/06/2022
Time: 12:00 am
Location: Leipzig, Germany
The theme of the conference, held on May 30-June 3 2022, was Reshaping Landscapes – Waterways in Transition. There is an illustrated report by Janet Gascoigne on the conference,  including highlights of the pre- and post-conference tours to Berlin and the Finow Canal, including the two ship lifts at Niederfinow, then to Magdeburg and the Elbe crossing, finishing […]
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WCC2023 Online

Start date: 01/05/2023
End date: 05/05/2023
Time: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Location: Online

WI hosted a series of webinars covering important waterway issues and presented by experts from all over the world. Topics included working with volunteer organisations to manage canals, how inland waterways boating can have less environmental impact, urban regeneration associated with canal restoration as well as what makes China’s Lingqu Canal unique.

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WCC2026 Guilin

Date: 01/10/2026
Time: 12:00 am - 12:00 am
Location: Guilin, Guangxi, China

Guilin and Xing’an (a county under Guilin’s jurisdiction) in Guangxi Autonomous Region, China, will host the WCC in October 2026. Here lies one of the oldest Chinese canals connecting the Yangtze and Pearl River basins: the Lingqu Canal. Xing’an is where water is diverted into the canal from the northward-flowing Xiang River. It is also home to the Lingqu Canal Museum. The conference will offer unique opportunities to cruise on the Lijiang River, south from Guilin, where the scenery is said to be ‘best under heaven’.

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Buffalo NY prepares for Erie Canal bicentenary in 2025

WCC2025 Buffalo

Start date: 21/09/2025
End date: 25/09/2025
All-day event
Location: Buffalo, NY, USA

Buffalo invites the world’s canal community to New York State’s ‘Queen City’ in September 2025, to help celebrate the 200th anniversary of the completion of the Erie Canal.
New York’s ‘Grand Canal’ provided the first all-water link between the Atlantic Ocean and the upper Great Lakes, altering patterns of settlement, agriculture, and industrialization throughout eastern North America. The Erie Canal remains in service today and endures as a testament to the vision and imagination of New Yorkers who dared to dream that a narrow ribbon of waterway, carved through 363 miles (584km) of forests and wetlands could transform their state and a young nation.

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WCC2024 Bydgoszcz

Start date: 24/06/2024
End date: 26/06/2024
Time: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Location: Bydgoszcz, Poland

The conference theme is Challenges between ecology and economic use – sustainable revitalisation of canals focusing on nature. Refer to the conference website for programme details, options for sponsors/exhibitors, and details of pre- and post-conference tours.

Water runs through the history of Bydgoszcz. Construction of the Bydgoszcz Canal in 1773-1774 connected the city near the confluence of the Brda and Vistula rivers with the West of Europe, further stimulating economic growth. Today, the Bydgoszcz Canal is Poland’s oldest canal that still in operation. The city sits at a crossing of inland waterways linking the east and west of Europe, including the navigable waterways E40, connecting the Baltic and Black Seas, and E70, which runs from Antwerp, Belgium to Vilnius, Lithuania.

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