Kiel Canal free for ships again from Tuesday afternoon

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22.12.

near Brunsbüttel: The oil and pollution control ship Knechtsand (left) and the pollution control ship Scharhörn travel across the water to pick up the oil

Photo: Jonas Walzberg / dpa

The Kiel Canal will be reopened to shipping on Tuesday at 12 noon - almost two weeks after the oil spill on December 21st.

"The cleaning work in Brunsbüttel has made good progress," said Environment Minister Tobias Goldschmidt on Monday.

»Thanks to a great team effort, the spread of oil in the Elbe and North Sea and thus an environmental disaster could be prevented.«

The Kiel Canal (NOK) was closed on December 21 after large quantities of crude oil spilled due to a leak in a pipeline.

Most recently, around 65 helpers freed contaminated embankments and port facilities as well as locks and ships from oil.

According to the ministry, the operator had the damaged pipeline repaired.

This was closely monitored during commissioning.

Further cleaning work could continue until the end of January.

Barriers are intended to prevent any oil residue from spreading further.

Ships should carefully pass the area of ​​the accident to prevent possible new oil spills from the embankments.

"Even if the damage control is very far advanced and traffic can now be resumed on the NOK, conscientious aftercare will keep us busy for a long time," said Goldschmidt.

The canal between Kiel and Brunsbüttel was inaugurated in 1895 and is the world's busiest artificial lake waterway.

According to earlier information from the economic research institute IfW, the canal brings Germany 570 million euros in welfare gains a year.

mgo/dpa