German Federal Government plans to allocate millions for dredging works against silt – including in the Ems.
According to a report by the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” (NOZ), a contract for maintenance works on the river, worth more than 20 million euros, has been awarded for the years 2025 and 2026. It is expected that around 1.86 million cubic meters of sludge will be removed.
The works are necessary because during high water, more sediment is carried upstream than can flow back out during low water. This would, for example, become a problem for the cruise ships of the Meyer Werft, which require a certain draft to be transported from Papenburg to the North Sea via the Ems, and would get stuck in the silt.
According to the NOZ, citing the Federal Ministry of Transport, over 750 million euros have been spent on similar maintenance works in the Ems since the year 2000, and the expenditures for the 2024 dredging campaign are not yet included.
The critical situation along the Ems, also from an environmental perspective, is to be improved in the future by reusing the Emssperrwerk in East Frisia as a silt barrier. According to the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Environment, the formal approval for this measure still needs to be granted. “In 2027, the tidal control will come into effect, and the water quality of the Ems will be sustainably improved” a spokesperson said. The Federal Ministry of Transport assumes that further dredging will still be necessary despite this.
The Elbe, according to the NOZ, is even more expensive for taxpayers. Since the year 2000, over a billion euros have been spent on maintenance works. A recently awarded contract for dredging campaigns from mid-2025 to mid-2027, “for the preservation and restoration of the required depths and widths in the fairway and in the waterway of the Unter- and Außenelbe” is budgeted at nearly 137 million euros in the tender information.