Thematic Essay

River Rhine Case Study

The Rhine is only 775 miles long but it’s a major artery in Europe. It flows through six countries on its way from its source in Switzerland, to the North Sea. It is heavily populated with 50 million people live along its banks in a number of major cities.

The Rhineland supports a great deal of industrial plants, and is responsible for 10% of the world’s chemical production, as well as a variety of other industries including refineries, metal works, plastic and textile manufacturers.

No other waterway in the world carries as much traffic as the Rhine. Every year the river transports 40 million tons of cargo by barge and ocean-going vessels. It’s navigable by pleasure boats right up to Rhinefelden in Switzerland.

The Rhine is under pressure from a variety of sources. Find out what these sources are and how they affect the river environment in the ‘areas of pressure’ section.

There is a number of ways the river environment is protected. Government and local and national bodies all have strategies for looking after the Rhine. The ‘strategies and success’ section outlines some of these strategies and explains how successful they’ve been.

50 million people live in the Rhine basin, most in one of the many major cities situated directly on the river or on one of its major tributaries. These cities have grown around the Rhine because of its mass of even flow water, a result of winter and spring precipitation and summer melt water. The river supports highly developed industry, trade, agriculture and transport.

Now humans use 80% of the former floodplain of the river. Roads and railways cross the areas behind the protective dykes. Urban growth has spread to the fertile river plains. The river has also been deepened in parts and meanders have been cut off in order to keep the river navigable.

The 50 million people who live in the river basin produce a lot of waste. Even when waste is not dumped directly into the river, rainwater can still wash toxic chemicals out of landfill sites and into the river. And 18 million people, from Rheinfelden to the estuary, depend on the Rhine for drinking water.

Consequences

♦ Building on the floodplains means they are no longer able to cope with the spring snow melts, and flooding occurs in the lower reaches of the river

♦ Cutting off meanders and deepening the channel also reduces storage areas upstream and contributes to the flooding problem.

♦ Millions of people can produce a great deal of sewage and large quantities of this were dumped into the river untreated.

The demand for clean drinking water means that money has to be invested in water treatment plants, and water quality monitored

Solutions

♦ Waste water treatment guidelines have been produced by the EU, which they’re able to enforce by the rule of law.

♦ The members of the ICPR made laws forcing local authorities to improve their sewers and build more sewerage plants.

♦ Acceptable levels of pollution were agreed and deadlines and targets set. For example, by the year 2000 90% of sewage had to be treated before entering the river.

♦ The ministers of the Rhine have agreed on an Action Plan on Flood Defence. This commits 12billion (euro) over the next twenty years to reducing the frequency and severity of flooding in the lower reaches of the river.