The Frozen Danube
February 16, 2012 |
Analysis
Low temperatures through January and February in Europe have caused several of the continent’s inland waterways to freeze, particularly the Danube River. Before the freeze, the region through which the Danube runs experienced a severe drought, dramatically reducing the river’s flow and increasing the likelihood that it would freeze over in the cold. Navigable rivers are a geopolitically significant feature of a given region. Transporting goods by water is much less expensive than by land, historically allowing residents to spend capital it would otherwise need for building transport networks on other investments that could increase its economic potential, such as education, energy or technology. Waterways enable industries to acquire intermediate products, expertise, raw materials and markets from farther away, increasing competition among the local suppliers. Europe has around 50,000 kilometers (31,000 miles) of navigable canals, rivers and lakes regularly used for transportation of goods. This network is mostly concentrated in the northwestern part of the continent, with one major exception: the Danube. The Danube flows for 2,872 kilometers through Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine to the Black Sea. On its way, it passes through four capital cities: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade. The completion of the 171-kilometer-long Rhine-Main-Danube Canal in 1992 allowed for travel to the Danube from the North Sea port of Rotterdam via the Rhine. While European countries have shifted away from inland waterways as their main shipping route, several countries still rely heavily on the Danube for trade — particularly Bulgaria and Romania — magnifying their transport difficulties caused by the freeze. However, this freeze is temporary; in the long term, the most harm to trade along the Danube will come from continued political instability in Eastern Europe.
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