The Netherlands is banning inland vessels from discharging toxic fumes from July 2024, Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management Mark Harber announced this week.
The ban will cover seven types of substances including carcinogenic benzene, gasoline and mixtures of petroleum and benzene.
Countries along the river Rhine agreed in 2017 to jointly introduce such a ban while sailing. The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg have ratified the convention, while Germany and France have not.
Dutch researchers at the Erasmus University Rotterdam concluded earlier this year that The Netherlands does not have to wait and is even "required to regulate floating degassing to protect the right to life and the respect for private and family life of its residents, as guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights".
(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout; editing by Jason Neely)
