Danube hits record low in Budapest as drought disrupts Central Europe

The Danube has fallen to record lows across Central Europe, disrupting shipping, tourism and industry. The drought is now hitting power generation and exposing new safety risks along the river.Stock photo used for illustrationA prolonged drought in Central Europe has pushed the Danube to record low levels, disrupting tourism, shipping and industry as wildfires burn in France and Spain and another heat wave bears down on Western Europe. The river, which runs through 10 countries from south-western Germany to the Black Sea, has receded sharply, exposing rocks, sand bars and old shipwrecks that are rarely seen.In Budapest, Hungary's capital, the national water authority measured the Danube at 23 centimetres on Wednesday morning, below the previous record low of 33 centimetres set in 2018. With no significant rain forecast and temperatures expected to rise above 38 degrees Celsius across the region, the river is expected to fall further in the coming days.As the Danube dropped to a new low on Tuesday, photographer Gabor Kertesz went to the base of Budapest's Margaret Bridge, usually underwater but now an exposed shoal, to record the scene. "The bare rocks, the dry sand bars around the bridge pillars ... it's all shocking to see how things were before and how they are now," he said. "Where will this lead? What will happen? We don't know that yet, but this must be the result of climate change."Much of Central Europe has been under prolonged drought for most of the year, and successive heat waves have sped up evaporation and dried out waterways. According to the Hungarian Meteorological Service, 90-day precipitation totals are between 80 and 130 millimetres lower across almost the entire country compared with multi-year averages. The low water level has forced popular cruise ships, whose passengers usually get off in Budapest for sightseeing, to dock far upriver, while cargo ships have almost completely stopped operating, according to Hungary's Ministry of Transport and Investment. In Bulgaria, where the Danube forms part of the border with Romania, police on Tuesday evacuated 186 tourists from a cruise ship that ran aground near the port city of Vidin.Passengers on the Viking Ullur ran out of food and water after the vessel, which had been scheduled to take on supplies in Vidin, could not reach the port after hitting a shallow shoal, Bulgaria's state news agency BTA reported. Police said the ship's 52 crew members might have to remain on board for an extended period, depending on navigation conditions and options to refloat the vessel. In Serbia, hundreds of small boats and dozens of cargo ships were stranded on the dried-out riverbank near the northern city of Novi Sad. Houseboat owner Radovan Segrt, who runs river excursions on his vessel, said the water in the Danube had withdrawn "some 15 to 20 metres from its shore". "The summer season is over now, as far as boat riding is concerned," he said.The receding water is also affecting nuclear power generation in countries that use Danube water to cool reactors. In Romania, where the river's flow had dropped to 1,630 cubic metres per second, about a third of a typical July average, authorities shut a reactor unit at the Cernavoda plant on Tuesday for safety reasons and said another would be shut soon after.In Hungary, the Paks nuclear plant, which supplies nearly half of the country's electricity, began powering down a reactor on Wednesday because of restricted cooling-water supplies. That followed successive reductions in output at two reactors over the previous two days.The exposed riverbed has also created risks. Last week, authorities in Budapest closed Margaret Bridge after a World War II bomb was exposed at its base by the falling water. On Tuesday, treasure hunter Zsolt Horvath used the extreme conditions to pull metal objects from the exposed bank with a powerful magnet, saying he enjoyed finding items such as an old radio amplifier and bullet casings from the World Wars. Horvath said that while "having so little water in the Danube is a blessing for this kind of activity, otherwise, it's a curse".With water levels falling further and no major rain in sight, the drought along the Danube is affecting daily life and business across several countries, from tourism and cargo movement to power generation, while also exposing fresh dangers along the river.With PTI Inputs- EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Jul 30, 2026 11:08 IST