This is probably the origin of the fabled 'Gold of the Nibelungs,'
the 'Rhinegold' that supposedly lay on the bottom of the Rhine in
days of yore and which gleamed during the hours of darkness. This
legend is also to be ascribed to the phenomenon of tribolumines-
cence. About 200-250 years ago, the water of the Rhine was proba-
bly clear enough for people to observe what appeared to be the
flashing of gold on the riverbed. The Rhine today, however, is a
thick, turbid, grey-green muddy brew, its life force having been
extinguished by modern mechanistic methods of river engineering.Conventional river engineering
Viktor Schauberger's most vigorous campaign was to try to per-
suade the Bonn government to restore the Rhine and the Danube to
their natural courses. He was greatly disturbed by the way in which
those mighty rivers' banks had been straightened, so that the water
was not able to flow naturally. It was like constraining someone in a
straightjacket. This had the effect of overheating the oxygen con-
tent, making it aggressive. The water becomes violent, prone to
flooding and disease-promoting. Tree felling on the river banks has
only exacerbated the problem.
Often the rivers have been regulated through trapezoid-shaped
canals in the misplaced belief that the flow would be improved. In
fact this almost lifeless body of water was unable to carry its sedi-
ment, which settled on the bottom, and the river has to be con-
stantly dredged. Because the flow is uniform, no cooling
longitudinal vortices can form and no energizing processes can take
place.
The water becomes warmer, sluggish, insipid and murky. With
its energies destroyed it becomes a stale and lifeless liquid. Instead
of being a carrier, mediator, accumulator and transformer of life-
energies, the river has become a corpse (Fig. 11.7).
Hydroelectric power
Present methods of hydroelectric power generation destroy water
in their own way. The present inappropriate design of dams we
touched on earlier in this chapter. The water is thrust down cylin-
drical pipes under enormous pressure. Upon leaving these it is
then hurled against steel turbine blades where it is smashed to
Fig. 11.7. Sand banks in conventional
channels.
From a textbook of conventional river
engineering. The river still tries to dance and
play, but confined to a straightjacket, it silts up
and will have to be dredged, to avoid flooding.- RIVERS AND HOW THEY FLOW