Drought and Heatwave Drive Danube and Rhine Water Levels to Record Lows, Impacting Shipping and Energy

Baking temperatures and drought across large swathes of central and eastern Europe have driven water levels on the Danube and Rhine rivers to record lows in some areas, hitting shipping, energy production and tourism hard.

Extreme conditions aggravated by the climate emergency left Europe’s waterways from the Netherlands to the Black Sea parched, triggering compounding crises.

For the first time in their history, Hungary and Romania had to shut down atomic reactors normally cooled by the Danube.

The largest nuclear power plant in Hungary, the 44-year-old Paks which supplies nearly half of the country’s electricity, has been cutting output since Monday.

The prime minister, Péter Magyar, said the Paks plant was operating at less than ​50% capacity and was expected ​to be ​completely powered down next week. The shutdown could extend for weeks as Danube water ‌levels are expected to remain too ‌low to ​restart ​it.

“An energy crisis situation could arise beginning Monday,” he posted on X. “Coordinated steps and restraint will be needed to avoid more severe consequences. We are counting on everyone!”

A malfunction at Hungary’s largest gas-fired power plant in Százhalombatta was worsening the grid shortage, he said.

Hungarian authorities have asked citizens to reduce energy use in the peak evening hours, including refraining from charging EVs and switching off air conditioners, while carmakers and battery manufacturers have been ordered to cut power and water consumption.

In Romania, authorities shut down a reactor unit at the Cernavodǎ power plant earlier in the week for safety reasons and announced a second would be switched off soon after.

The prime minister, Ilie Bolojan, said the shutdowns could last for one to two weeks and also urged Romanians to reduce power consumption in the evenings.

The Danube, which flows through 10 countries, has receded to unprecedented lows in some areas, exposing rocks, old shipwrecks, a second world war bomb and even the remains of an ancient woolly mammoth.

A resident of Ryahovo village in northern Bulgaria discovered the bones of the giant ice age beast on the riverbed and specialists at the Regional History Museum in the nearby ‌town of Ruse arrived to investigate the rare find.

Last week, authorities in Budapest closed the Margaret Bridge after a wartime bomb was exposed at its base by the dropping water levels.

The record low level of the Danube has forced Budapest cruise ships to dock upriver and sightseeing cruises to be cancelled. Cargo ship operations have ground to a near halt, according to Hungary’s ministry of transport and investment.

The river is expected to further ebb in the coming days, with no significant rain in the forecast and temperatures expected to exceed 38C across the region.

From Slovakia and Hungary to Romania and Bulgaria farther east, ships on the Danube were unable to travel fully loaded along the waterway, and faced lengthy waits.

At the Vidin-Calafat Bridge connecting Bulgaria and Romania, Bulgarians said they were out of work because the low water levels had trapped their boats onshore.

“It’s never dried up this much before,” Rossen Dobrev, a fisher, told Agence France-Presse. “Now we can even walk all the way to Romania.”

Water levels on the Rhine in Germany also fell to near record lows on ‌Friday, triggered by a heatwave and prolonged dry weather, the country’s WSV navigation agency said. Shallow water has forced reductions of cargo on ‌vessels to about 20% of their normal capacity.

The Rhine is a crucial shipping artery ​for grains, minerals, ores, coal and oil products, including petrol, creating potential bottlenecks for companies in the EU’s top economy.

Dutch officials said the Rhine had dropped to its lowest recorded level at the point where it flows into the Netherlands, and was due to recede further.

The Netherlands has suffered from an officially recognised water shortage since mid-July, leading to use restrictions across most of the country, particularly in farming.

In Serbia, hundreds of small boats and dozens of cargo ships were marooned on the dried-out riverbank near the northern city of Novi Sad.

One houseboat owner, Radovan Segrt, who runs river excursions on his vessel, told the Associated Press that the water in the Danube had withdrawn about 15 to 20 metres from its shore.

“The summer season is over now, as far as boat riding is concerned,” he said.