A Black Sea to Baltic Sea shipping route is running into environmental opposition

A Black Sea to Baltic Sea shipping route is running into environmental opposition, reports an article from Belarus posted in Eurasianet. Over 1,000 years ago, Vikings used the route, dragging their long ships through boggy parts of the Pripyat, an east-west river that crosses southern Belarus until it reaches the Dnipro. However, the proposed multi-billion euro, 1,250-mile E-40 Waterway would involve dredging depths to 2.5 meters and building bypass canals, sluices and locks. Environmentalists worry that water flows would speed up, disturbing birdlife and stirring up radioactive particles in river sediment near Chernobyl. Although Ukraine and Belarus, a landlocked nation, support the project, environmentalists vow to lobby European development banks to block funding.