REVIVAL of a plan to build a 229-kilometre canal linking the Rhine and the
Rho藛ne has outraged environmentalists and transport analysts, who say the
canal will not attract enough traffic to make it worthwhile.
The French Prime Minister, Edouard Balladur, announced at the end of last
month that the canal, first proposed 鈥� and rejected 鈥� in 1961, would be
completed by 2005. He pushed through a last-minute amendment to a regional
development bill debated in the Senate last week to provide finance for the
project.
The Rhine-Rho藛ne link, which will have 23 locks, will follow the
course of a smaller, 150-year-old canal that begins near the town of Mulhouse
and ends on the Sao藛ne, a tributary of the Rho藛ne, near Dole. It
will cost some 17.2 billion francs (拢2.2 billion). Critics have been
quick to point out that the former Socialist government rejected the project
on economic grounds.
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Environmentalists, including France鈥檚 Green party, say that while they are
generally in favour of shifting freight off the roads and onto barges, the
Rhine-Rho藛ne project is ill-suited to the local geography. They say it
will do irreparable damage to the valley of the Doubs river, a little-
developed region which the canal will pass through.
Dominique Voynet, spokeswoman for the Greens, says that while she supports
a planned canal linking the River Seine with Dunkirk, the Rhine-Rho藛ne is
鈥渦seless and ecologically ruinous鈥�.
Almost 75 per cent of freight travels by road in France. Only 4 per cent is
shipped along inland waterways, compared to about 20 per cent in Germany.
Supporters of the huge canal say it will help to reduce the number of lorries
on French roads.
The Association Mer du Nord-Me麓diterrane麓e, a group set up by
supporters of the canal, says that when the 鈥渕issing link鈥� is completed, large
ships carrying up to 4500 tonnes of cargo will be able to travel by river and
canal from Rotterdam to the Mediterranean ports of Marseille and Fos, creating
an economic boom in the region.
The state-run company Compagnie Nationale du Rho藛ne (CNR) will build
and operate the canal. According to a study carried out for CNR by Dutch
consultants NEA, some 13 to 14 million tonnes of freight a year will pass
through the canal within five years of its completion 鈥� more than three times
the amount that now travels along the Rho藛ne. Another study commissioned
by CNR says that the canal will generate a profit of between 7 and 9 per
cent.
But transport researchers back the findings of earlier studies which
concluded that the volume of traffic would be as nowhere near as large as CNR
predicts.
In a series of reports in the late 1980s, the OEST, a government body that
monitors transport statistics, concluded that only half the maximum amount of
freight that could use the route would do so. NEA鈥檚 estimates put the volume
of traffic more than three times higher.
It was the OEST鈥檚 figures which persuaded the economics minister at the
time, Pierre Be麓re麓govoy, to drop the plan. Patrice Salini, former
director of the OEST and now head of the Institute of Transport Management and
Logistics, in Lieusaint, south of Paris, says NEA has not provided enough
evidence to show how it reached its figure. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 understand where they get
their numbers from,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 would like to believe freight moving from
Barcelona to Stockholm will use the Rhine-Rho藛ne but this must be proven.
I personally don鈥檛 think this will be the case.鈥�
He points out that predictions from the mid-1970s were either high or low,
depending on who was paying for the research. 鈥淚鈥檓 not against the French
government betting on boosting traffic along the Rho藛ne, but I think we
should know just how big the bet is.鈥�
Monique Coulet, a hydrobiologist with the national research organisation
CNRS, is against the canal. 鈥淭he Doubs is a tiny river compared to the
Rho藛ne,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he canal will spell the demise of an entire
ecosystem which we could never get back. CNR is reasoning like a plumber.鈥� She
says CNR has not published the findings of any of its detailed scientific
studies on the ecological impact of the project.
鈥淚f someone could really prove the economic benefits of the canal for
France, I would say sacrifice the river,鈥� says Coulet. 鈥淭he problem is they
肠补苍鈥檛.鈥�