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.
Sharon Leighton became IWI’s eighth president on January 1st, 2024, replacing Rudy Van der Ween
at the end of his three-year term. Sharon recently retired from her position as community development expert at the New York State Canal Corporation, and had been vice-president since 2020.
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.
Following COVID disruption to the planned WCC schedule, there was no in-person conference in 2023. In its place, IWI hosted a series of webinars covering important waterways issues presented by experts from all over the world. The topics covered included working with partners (including volunteer organisations) to manage canals, what makes China’s Lingqu Canal unique, different approaches to regenerating canals, how inland waterways boating can
Meeting at The Cruising Association in Limehouse, London, on 17 April, a group of 25 members heard a tribute by our president Rudy Van der Ween to Dr Roger Squires, who helped to found IWI (with Ron Oakley) from 1992, and continued to serve as Special Advisor to Council until 2022.
It is with great sadness that we announce that Tom Grasso, IWI’s President between 2003 and 2008.
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.
IWI’s Council welcomes its first member from Germany, Angela Zábojnik.
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.