🌊 Record number of river barriers removed in Europe during 2024

• Europe removed 542 dams, weirs and sluices that blocked the flow in waterways during 2024.
• The number of removals increased by 11 percent compared to the year before according to a report from Dam Removal Europe.
• 23 countries carried out removals of river barriers, four of them for the first time.

Finland led with most removals

Europe removed 542 river barriers during 2024, shows a new report. The number of dams, weirs, culverts and sluices that were removed grew by 11 percent compared to the previous year according to the annual report from Dam Removal Europe.

23 countries carried out removals of river barriers last year. Four countries - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic and Turkey - did this for the first time.

Finland removed the most barriers with a total of 138 removals. France followed with 128, Spain with 96, Sweden with 45 and the UK with 28.

Culverts and weirs made up 90 percent of the removed barriers according to the report. 65 percent of the barriers were less than 2 meters high, making them cheaper and easier to remove than larger structures.

Specific restoration projects carried out

Several specific restoration projects were carried out during the year. At the Giovenco river in Italy, five removals enabled an 11-kilometer stretch to flow freely for the first time in decades.

In Belgium, 11 impassable culverts were replaced with bridges at Rulles and Anlier to protect the pearl mussel, which is critically endangered in the EU.

At the Torne river in Sweden and Finland, removal of almost 400 barriers is ongoing in a watershed as large as Switzerland.

Millions of barriers fragment Europe's waterways

Europe's waterways are fragmented by 1.2 million barriers. Tens of thousands of these are considered old and obsolete. Ecologists believe that damming of rivers is a significant factor behind the 75 percent decline in the continent's freshwater migratory fish population that has been observed since 1970.

The researchers from Dam Removal Europe, a coalition of environmental organizations working to restore free flow in rivers and streams, say that the lack of centralized databases means their figures probably underestimate the number of removed river barriers.

EU targets for waterway restoration

The EU has committed to restoring 25,000 kilometers of river to free-flowing state by 2030. This after adopting a nature restoration law last year. Member states must agree on an action plan by mid-2026 outlining how they will meet the targets.

A study published in the journal Nature in 2020 found that no catchments in Europe were free from artificial barriers. The researchers concluded that achieving the river restoration goal would require a paradigm shift that recognized the widespread impact that small barriers have on ecosystems.

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