Given that navigation on the Danube section between rkm 563 to rkm 565 almost came to a complete standstill in the beginning of July 2022 with dozens of pushers, vessels, and hundreds of barges being forced to wait for the maintenance of the fairway by dredging, Pro Danube International, in its capacity as the voice of the Danube IWT industry, representing a wide network of businesses operating on the Danube, decided to submit a Call for Action on Co-operative Fairway Management in order to raise awareness on this problematic situation, urging for a proper long-term solution-finding process. This - reinforcing the similar proposal from September 2021 - includes quarterly meetings with the involvement of the IWT sector and the waterway administrations of Bulgaria and Romania. We also addressed the importance of starting to collect data about the limitations hindering the business on the fairway (closure, depth, width etc.) along the Danube section at least between rkm 563 to rkm 565. Current restrictions are mainly communicated verbally and – according to our knowledge - not officially administered for public access. This does not allow the creation of statistics on previous timeframes and even worse, cannot form an integral part of viable comparisons between past and future situations in order to see the concrete effects of dredging and maintenance activities on the businesses.
In the last days the situation on the above mentioned section became worse, and we are experiencing a complete standstill since the weekend 23-24 July 2022!
Pro Danube International's initiative furthermore highlights the fact that this issue has become unbearable and is posing a serious threat not only to business models but also to the overall trust, reliability, and economic viability of this mode of transport. This unfortunate situation is having a negative impact on the NAIADES III targets to significantly increase modal split and on the recently launched EU-Ukraine Solidarity Lane initiative aimed at supporting the export of Ukraine's agricultural produce.
Pro Danube International´s facilitation proposal includes the arrangement of quarterly meetings as well as to start collecting basic data on the fairway limitations from the business perspective and is available for download here.