On the 29th of July 2022, Ukraine terminated its bilateral agreement with Belarus on inland navigation. Is this the end of the potentially devastating E40 waterway project? The idea of the E40 waterway was developed by Polish, Belarusian and Ukrainian governments. It aims to link the Baltic Sea and Black Sea through a 2,000 km-long … Read more
A new economic analysis reveals that the planned E40 waterway would operate at a severe economic loss in the long-term, even under optimistic scenarios. Published on World Wetlands Day, the economic analysis by the Netherlands-based consultancy Langhout Ecologisch Advies lays bare severe implications from the construction of the E40 waterway. The planned megaproject would … Read more
An article published in The Guardian today, highlights the devastating impacts of this planned dam on the Vistula river in Poland. The Polish government is moving forward despite warnings from scientists, non-governmental organizations and society as a whole. Poland wants to build a new dam on the country’s largest river next to the village of … Read more
The European Commission recently released their proposal for Europe’s roadmap for future transport. The so-called trans-European transport network (TEN-T) policy doesn’t include the planned E40 waterway route, recognizing its high costs and environmental impacts. Instead, the focus is on multimodality, high-speed rail and climate-proof projects. The TEN-T Regulation aims to build an effective, EU-wide and … Read more
This autumn, Polish poet and runner Małgorzata Lebda successfully completed a 1,000 kilometer-long run – 26 marathons – along the Vistula to draw attention to the state of the river and the threats it faces. Starting the run along the river’s headwaters in the mountains close to the border with the Czech Republic, she finished … Read more
In Poland, the threat of the Siarzewo Dam on the Vistula River returns following this week’s changes to Poland’s Ministry of Climate and Environment and a ruling by the Provincial Administrative Court that allows the project to continue under ‘immediate implementation’ status. In August, the Polish Minister of Climate and Environment Michał Kurtyka revoked the … Read more
90% of river basins studied in various EU countries will still be unhealthy by 2027, reveals a new report by WWF and Living Rivers Europe. This means those countries will miss the legally binding EU target to return Europe’s polluted freshwaters to health by then. The research also identifies serious gaps within the River Basin … Read more
Experts of the Save Polesia coalition believe that the recently released Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the “Strategy for the Development of Inland Water Transport of Ukraine until 2031 and the action plan for its implementation” contains a number of miscalculations. On September 17, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine published the SEA report of … Read more
A recent article in the Belarusian economic newspaper, Economic Gazeta (Экономическая Газета), condemns government plans to increase budgetary support for water transport in the country and the construction of the E40 waterway along Polesia’s rivers. The economic newspaper quotes the call from Belarusian business associations to recognize the fact that rivers and canals have lost … Read more
The environmental go-ahead for the project to construct the Siarzewo Dam on the Vistula River has been revoked by the Polish Minister of Climate and Environment, Michał Kurtyka. Non-governmental organisations, forming part of the Polish Save the Rivers Coalition have been pushing for several years for the Ministry to reassess the environmental consent for the … Read more