The prolonged drought in Europe has led to record low water levels on the Danube River, hampering tourism, shipping and industry in several Central European countries, while heat waves and forest fires in Western Europe highlight the effects of climate change, writes the Associated Press, BTA reported.
The Danube River, which rises in southwestern Germany and flows through 10 countries before flowing into the Black Sea, has reached unprecedented low levels along much of its course. The receding waters are revealing rocks, sandbars and shipwrecks that have rarely been seen before.
In Budapest, Hungary's General Directorate of Water Management (OVF) reported a river level of just 23 centimeters yesterday, below the previous historic low of 33 centimeters recorded in 2018.
The Danube is expected to continue to fall in the coming days, as no significant rainfall is forecast and temperatures in the region are expected to exceed 38 degrees Celsius.
Hungarian photographer Gabor Kertész, who visited the foundations of Budapest's Margaret Bridge, which are usually underwater but now sit on a bare sandbar, described the sight as shocking.
“The bare rocks and dry sandbars around the bridge piers are a shocking sight. "What will happen next, we don't know, but it must be a result of climate change," he said.
A large part of Central Europe has been affected by prolonged drought for most of the year, and successive heat waves have accelerated evaporation and led to the drying up of water bodies.
According to the Hungarian National Meteorological Service, the amount of precipitation in the past 90 days has been between 80 and 130 millimeters below the multi-year average in almost the entire country.
The low river level has forced tourist cruise ships, whose passengers usually disembark in central Budapest, to dock far upstream. Cargo shipping has virtually ceased, the Hungarian Ministry of Transport and Investment announced.
In Bulgaria, where the Danube is a natural border with Romania, police on Tuesday evacuated 186 tourists from the Swiss-flagged cruise ship Viking Ullur, which was stranded near Vidin.
The vessel was unable to reach port due to a shoal, and the passengers were left without food and drinking water, the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA) reported, quoted by the AP. Police said the 52-member crew could remain on board for an extended period of time, depending on navigation conditions and the ability to free the ship.
In Serbia, hundreds of small boats and dozens of cargo ships are stranded off the coast in the Novi Sad area due to low river levels.
Radovan Šegrt, owner of a floating restaurant and organizer of river trips, said the water had receded by between 15 and 20 meters from the shore.
“The summer boating season is already over,” he said.
The low Danube level is also affecting electricity production in several countries where the river water is used to cool nuclear reactors.
In Romania, where the river's flow has dropped to around 1,630 cubic meters per second - roughly a third of its usual July level - authorities on Tuesday halted one of the reactors of the Black Water Nuclear Power Plant for safety reasons and announced that a second reactor is to be shut down.
Similar measures were also taken by the Hungarian Paks Nuclear Power Plant, which provides nearly half of the country's electricity. Yesterday, the nuclear power plant began a phased reduction in the power of one of the reactors due to limited amounts of cooling water, after the production of two other reactors had already been limited in the previous two days.
The exposed riverbed also poses safety risks. Last week, authorities in Budapest closed the Margaret Bridge after the receding water revealed a World War II air bomb.
Metal hunter Zsolt Horvat uses the unusually low level of the river to search for objects on the exposed bottom with a powerful magnet. He says he found old radio parts and shell casings from both world wars.
“The Danube's low level is a blessing for such an activity, but in all other respects it is a disaster,“ said Horvath.