WATERWAYS

[LOG: Liège, February 17]
There are a number of major issues in waterway logistics and one of them is the maintenance backlog in the Walloon country. The Walloon minister of port infrastructure has now come up with a solution enabling dredging to take place. There will be a European tender to process an annual amount of 285,000m3 that has built up since the ‘90s.

On the waterway front, Inland Navigation also notes that Dutch and German governments are to subsidize transponders to enable ships to automatically log into river information systems. Currently, they transmit the positional identity of the ship, but the system is expected also to play a role in security, border crossing and logistics.

The Flemish Minister Hilde Crevits along with 25 inland shipping leaders have signed the 3E covenant which lays a foundation for the sustainable future of inland navigation in Flanders. The Dutch Minister of Transport and Waterways has also made a EUR 2m grant available to subsidize innovation in inland navigation.

The Dutch minister of planning, development and the environment will also provide a EUR 1m subsidy for vehicle emission control systems for diesel-engine inland ships. Energy saving and fuel saving are also covered in the recent issue of Inland Shipping.

http://www.inlandnavigation.org/