Carriage, Handling and Storage of Dangerous Goods along

4. WATERWAYS
4.1 INTRODUCTION
RECOMMENDATIONS 103
Mekong navigation is characterised by a number of shortcomings that often make it dangerous and
difficult. On certain river stretches it may not even be environmentally sustainable to navigate the river
as the risks to tanker barges are too high. That is why spillages on the river have to be prevented from
happening as the high-river flows make it too difficult to contain and clean up the spills. In Volume I
(Risk Analysis), these challenges to safe navigation on the waterways, known as "waterway factors"
have been analysed per stretch:
a. Waterway geometrics:
• rocky bottom and river banks;
• submerged obstacles like hidden rock outcrops, ship wrecks, big boulders, etc;
• narrow channels which not allowing the crossing of two vessels or overtaking;
• high bottom gradients with hidden thresholds.
b. Hydraulics of the water flow:
• strong funnel shaped and turbulent currents;
• side currents from tributaries of side channels.
c. Location of the hazards:
• upstream from important water intakes, big cities, and important wetlands;
• lakes and direction of flow.