Europe is on a river barrier-demolition spree. And it has to do it more vigorously to meet a target of making 25,000 kilometres of rivers barrier-free by 2030.
Twenty-three countries demolished 542 barriers in 2024, according to data compiled by the Dam Removal Europe (DRE), a coalition of six organisations like the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), The Rivers Trust, The Nature Conservancy and the European Rivers Network.
With one dam for every kilometre of rivers, European countries are increasingly joining this drive to enable rivers to flow free, and to restore back the original aquatic ecosystems.
The barrier removal number last year was the highest since the drive started in 2020. This year, 11 countries removed 101 barriers like dams, weirs, culverts and sluices on rivers. In the next three years, it picked up momentum: By 2023, 15 countries had removed 487 barriers.
The drive in Europe is happening in context of global concerns over ecological impacts of increasing blocking or damming of rivers. The human-made barriers on rivers are one of the earliest interventions in natural ecosystems to harness benefits for human societies.
On July 10, 2025, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released its Frontiers 2025: The Weight of Time. The annual report flags emerging environmental issues. This year’s analysis identified ‘barrier removal for restoration’ as one of the issues.
“While dams have provided significant benefits, they have also disrupted indigenous and fishing communities, while damaging river ecosystems,” noted the UNEP flagship report. It called for a global effort to let rivers flow free.
“Removing dams and barriers is an increasingly accepted strategy to restore river health, and has gained momentum, particularly in Europe and North America, where large, older dams that have become unsafe, obsolete, or economically unviable are being removed,” the report noted.
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