Kehl (dpa/lsw) - The state-owned Rhine port of Kehl is suffering from the consequences of low water. The situation is dramatic, said port director Volker Molz on Friday during a visit by Transport Minister Winfried Hermann and State Secretary for Finance Gisela Splett (both Green). A rapid improvement is initially not in sight.
Molz put the losses at around 100,000 tons per month compared to the same period last year. Around 6.8 million tons of goods are usually handled every year, around two-thirds of them via water.
The traffic between Kehl and Basel works because the Rhine is dammed, said Molz. The connections to seaports such as Rotterdam and Antwerp are causing problems. The port in Kehl (Ortenaukreis) ranks seventh among German inland ports for goods handling.
Hermann said that Baden-Württemberg had the port of Mannheim in addition to Kehl. In the energy and climate crisis, inland shipping must be strengthened. "We have to make better use of the potential on the waterways," he said.
With a view to the restrictions due to the low water, Hermann referred to an initiative with Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. The three federal states are committed to deepening the shipping channel in the Middle Rhine as quickly as possible.
If the capacities for inland shipping are increased, the access routes for the ports must also work by rail, as Hermann made clear. Molz calculated that 6.5 kilometers of rails had been dismantled in Kehl in the past. Kehl is an important bridge town on the border with France.
