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The tugboat Parkko
The waterways have an unexploited potentialVänttinen began work in Lake Saimaa, as a 13 year old working in log floating. This was a time when the lakes and shores were full of timber. The waterways were utilized very much in transportation, but then the bustle suddenly came to a stop like it had hit the wall of a dam and the vast majority of the transports were transferred to rubber wheels. ”It was perhaps capitalism that stopped the floating log jobs. Goods must be moved ever faster and there is no time to move the trees first from the land to the shore and then let them lie in the lakes as before”, says Vänttinen and Paavo Miettinen a ratings-repair man, as they deliberate about the demise of log floating, Actually during recent years log floating has shown some small signs of recovery. Waterways are the most advantageous and the most environmentally friendly form of transport. Floating logs do not harm nature or damage the roads so an increase in the use of the waterways is an idea that should be taken extremely seriously, the men think.
Inland waterway traffic has been lost to foreign vesselsEven ten years ago the vast majority of the transports which occurred in Finland’s waterways were handled by Finnish ships. In 2001, the percentage of domestic vessels, which transported goods in Finnish water traffic (including also coastal traffic), was about 70 percent. In 2002, the corresponding figure was 90 percent and in 2003 still almost 80 percent. The amount of goods transported in Finnish waterways by vessels sailing under a Finnish flag has collapsed during a period of ten years. During last year, only 37 per cent of the goods transported in Finnish waterways were handled by Finnish vessels. Whereas the percentage of vessels, which have been registered in European Union countries, and which transport goods in Finnish waterways was at that time 45 percent and the percentage of vessels transporting goods in Finnish waterways, which are registered outside the European Union, was about 17 percent. Nowadays in Finnish waterways, it is possible to often encounter vessels from other countries, including: Gibraltar, The Netherlands, Cyprus, Panama and Russia – to say nothing about other so called flag of convenience ships. ***** The Vuoksi waterway is Finland’s largest waterway, which empties through Vuoksi into Lake Ladoga. The waterway reaches all the way up to Kuopio and Joensuu and when the upper water courses are included it is possible to reach as far as Iisalmi and Nurmes. Text and pictures: Saana Lamminsivu
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