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.
Partners from across the North West Region of Europe (UK, Ireland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands) met today in Paris to kick off the EU-funded Interrreg project “Green WIN“. The meeting, hosted by Voies Navigables de France (VNF), set out the schedule for this new transnational project, which looks at the environmental efficiency of water management on inland waterways, with a particular focus on pumping operations and
Report by member Tim Coghlan (first published in Towpath Talk, No. 96) Irish eyes were justifiably smiling following the 31st World Canals Conference (WCC) – the second to be hosted by Ireland. The first was held jointly in Dublin and Belfast in 2001 and this year’s conference moved to central Ireland, to the town of Athlone, appropriately lying astride the River Shannon, which is the
All boat owners, especially those who live aboard their boats, with gas appliances, will be interested in a new initiative by BWML. From 17th to 23rd September, organisations from across the UK will be working together to raise awareness on the dangers of gas and how to avoid them. The goal is to educate people about the simple things to look out for, such as
The Håverud Aqueduct on the Dalsland Canal in Sweden celebrated its 150th anniversary on 31st August 2018.
by Maggie Armstrong (I-474) A quick glance at the map of the inland waterways published by the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine (CCNR) in their 2016 Marketing Report is enough to make any skipper with a cargo barge less than 85m long fear that their future is on the line. Many of the waterways they regularly work are simply airbrushed out of the picture. Unbelievably there appear to be
Plastics in our oceans are an issue that is receiving increasing attention worldwide. All who navigate on our inland waterways have their role to play in preventing plastic wastes from entering any water body. Plastic wastes on great rivers like the Yangtze or the Rhône are less spectacular than the great Pacific plastic vortex, but part of the same phenomenon. This is brought home to
IWI has established itself as a ‘place to be’ at the world’s biggest boat show, BOOT Düsseldorf, thanks to the generous conditions offered by Messe Düsseldorf. The prototype of our dedicated Inland Waterways Pavilion was set up and staffed by Council members from January 19-28, 2018, with results that augur well for even greater impact at next year’s event, when we expect to have up
The recent World Canals Conference in Syracuse, NY, was a great success, with more than 350 delegates from 12 countries. I took part in a pre-conference ‘Tour the Towpath‘ cycling rally on September 23-24, followed by IWI’s Annual General Meeting on the Sunday evening, then the four-day conference. There is so much to learn at this annual gathering of waterway authorities and professionals in so
The new French government plans to ‘pause’ the long-awaited Seine-Nord Europe Canal. Immediately after the newly-elected president Emmanuel Macron formed his Government, there were concerns for the project, as the Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was known to be less than luke-warm to the project (as mayor of Le Havre, fearing a loss of traffic). After that there was a flurry of reassuring news in May
We are sad to announce that Carol Manchester, an active IWI member for many years, died in Fall River, Nova Scotia, Canada, on Monday, February 6, 2017 at the age of 78. She worked for many years at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography and Corrections Canada before retiring to work in her garden and paint, also taking part, with her husband Keith Manchester, in conservation
The Seine-Nord Europe Canal has overcome what may have been the final obstacle in its epic progression towards the first shovel of earth being moved. The State, regions and départements agreed on a plan to bear the increased cost of the works, at a meeting held in the cabinet office of Alain Vidalies, Secretary of State for Transport, on Monday November 28. The crisis mentioned
Inland Waterways International has constantly supported Europe’s new canal, the 107-km ‘missing link’ for high-capacity barges and push-tows between the Seine basin and the main interconnected network from Northern France through the Rhine to Switzerland and through the German waterways to the rest of Europe. The French Government insists that the project will go ahead, with works starting in 2017, but the main stakeholders in