(a) Describe three advantages and three limitations of water transportation (b) Explain how the limitations identified in (a) above can be overcome

Answer Details

(a) Advantages and limitations of water transportation

Advantages:

1. It is the cheapest means of moving bulky and heavy goods over long distances.
2. It requires no expensive track construction - the natural waterway or sea is the route.
3. It can carry very large loads (bulk cargo such as oil, grain and ores) in a single voyage.

Limitations:

1. It is very slow compared with road, rail or air.
2. Waterways are interrupted by rapids, waterfalls, shallow water, sand bars and freezing/silting, limiting where ships can go.
3. It can only serve places near the coast or navigable rivers, and cannot reach inland areas directly.

(b) How the limitations can be overcome

• Slowness: use faster, modern powered vessels and combine water transport with road, rail or air for through movement.
• Rapids, waterfalls and shallows: construct canals, locks, dams and by-pass channels, and carry out dredging to deepen and widen channels; build breakwaters and clear sand bars.
• Limited reach inland: develop ports with good road and rail links (container/intermodal transport) so goods can be moved onward to inland destinations; build inland waterways where possible.