When river conditions are constantly changing, solutions must also be flexible. In this spirit, the Executive Agency for Exploration and Maintenance of the Danube River (EAEMDR) launched today, October 15, 2025, a pilot activity to position a specially adapted barge designed to guide the water flow toward the navigation channel near Vardim Island – one of the characteristic shallow sections in the Bulgarian stretch of the river.
The activity is carried out under the project FAIRway Danube II, financed by the Connecting Europe Facility (2021–2027), with the participation of partners from Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, and Romania. The main goal is to test innovative, nature-based solutions for maintaining the navigable channel during low-water periods, contributing to the sustainable management of the river.
During low-water conditions, when navigation becomes more difficult, barges - so-called flexible infrastructure elements - will be positioned around the critical section near Vardim Island. These barges will be securely anchored outside the fairway and will direct a greater volume of water toward it, where the flow velocity will naturally increase. This will result in less sediment accumulation and greater depth of the fairway.
Similar to practices in other Danube countries, the barges will function as flexible infrastructure - temporary, movable, and aligned with natural river dynamics.
In recent years, climate change has led to more frequent and prolonged low-water periods, as well as higher summer temperatures and droughts. These processes hinder navigation and call for new approaches to river management.
Through this pilot activity, Bulgaria will test a non-invasive, environmentally friendly method that can be applied to other sections of the Danube. The activity near Vardim Island will provide valuable information on the effectiveness of adaptive infrastructure elements and their role in the modern and sustainable management of the waterway.
The pilot activity will continue for several years, as the results will be analyzed in order to assess their applicability.
