Whitchurch, England – On a misty winter’s day in the English midlands, engineers struggled to drag stranded narrowboats from a waterless, mud-filled canal that collapsed weeks earlier, in a delicate, multimillion-pound rescue operation.
The sight starkly illustrated an ongoing battle to maintain the U.K.’s historic, yet deteriorating, waterways.
Britain’s canal network “is facing pressure it has never faced before,” said Charlie Norman, director of campaigns at the Inland Waterways Association (IWA), an independent charity advocating for the upkeep of the U.K.’s canals and rivers.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.