Record-low water on major rivers is crippling inland navigation, slashing barge capacity and raising freight costs, the International Transport Forum (ITF) warns in a new factsheet. The Rhine, Danube, Loire and Po have all hit record lows in recent months.

In August 2026 barges from Rotterdam and Antwerp through the middle Rhine could load only about 15 percent of their normal cargo to avoid grounding, and on the Danube about 30 percent. Lower loads mean more trips and vessels for the same freight, and rates can rise sharply as operators compete for limited capacity, the ITF said.

Inland waterways carry 15 to 45 percent of freight in Belgium, China, the Netherlands and Romania; the Rhine moves fuels, chemicals and grain, and 92 percent of US agricultural exports travel by river. Low water on the Rhine in 2018 was linked to a 0.4 percent fall in German GDP. Average summer discharge on the Rhine could fall by up to 10 percent by 2050 under high climate-change scenarios.

Photo: Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Source: Down To Earth