German ministers clash over river engineering or restoration
Germany's heat wave has lowered water levels on the Rhine, Danube, Elbe and other rivers, revealing sandbanks and severely disrupting cargo shipping that many industries rely on. Transport minister Steffen Bilger convened a crisis summit, temporarily lifted a ban on Sunday and holiday truck transports to ease bottlenecks, and advocated dredging deeper channels plus new low-draft ships. Environment minister Carsten Schneider and environmental groups pushed back, calling to restore meandering branches and floodplains and warning dredging speeds drainage to the sea and is not a permanent fix.
Low river levels have disrupted cargo shipping on Germany's major rivers
Context
A heat wave has lowered river levels and exposed sandbanks. That has cut river cargo…
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