The River Rhine

The Rhine. One of the most important and largest rivers in Europe. Rising in Switzerland, the Rhine starts its 820 mile travel through Austria, Liechtenstein, France, Germany and the Netherlands covering 85,000 square miles. The Rhine is formed in the Swiss Alps and churns through deep georges, being fed by the melted snow. The Rhine is connected to the Danube and runs through the Main, the Lake of Constance and the Black Forest. At last the Rhine comes to the Netherlands, where it now is beginning to flood. In 1995, 250,000 people were evacuated when the Rhine almost flooded 'Nijmegen' in Rotterdam (Europes leading port). From the Netherlands the Rhine flows on out into the North Sea.

The Rhine became a major industrial area around 1900. Whilst the industry grew, so did the pollution, and in 1976 when it grew too severe to be ignored the Dutch, the French, Luxembourg, Swiss and West German governments all signed a contract to help clean the Rhine. In the next 10 years, the Rhine was cleaned up greatly. Then, disaster struck! In 1986, a massive chemical spill reversed the decades cleaning and put the Rhine in worse condition than it had ever been. Many water systems in West Germany, France and the Netherlands were forced to close.The chemical spill was named the worst non-nuclear disaster of the decade, and was probably the worst event the Rhine has ever encountered.

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