As the Danube Hits Record Lows, Every Centimeter of River Counts

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“Everyone knew this would happen sooner or later,” Cseh said. “Now it just has to rain.”

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In the meantime, Hungary’s parliament on the bank of the Danube in Budapest is empty after sessions were delayed to save energy. Decorative lighting in the city as well as those of state-owned buildings have been turned off. Under one of the bridges linking the Buda and Pest sides of the city, the ruins of an earlier bridge, destroyed in World War II, are visible just below the surface.

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Voluntary cutbacks from carmakers and battery plants have also alleviated some of the pressure on the grid, as have auto companies in neighboring Romania.

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Upriver in Bratislava, the effects of a shrinking Danube were also visible. More than a dozen vessels are now moored in the Slovak capital, waiting for rain and the water level to rise to allow passage up to Vienna or down to Budapest.

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A popular tourist route for leisure and travel cruises, 610,000 passengers were transported on the Upper Danube lines in 2024, according to the most recent data from the Budapest-based Danube Commission.

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“We were joking that we are actually not on a river cruise but on a houseboat,” said Lou, a tourist from Florida. “We just come here to sleep on a boat. We’re gonna make the most of it. It’s great, but the river is low and it’s too sad.”

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It’s too early to calculate the impact, according to economists. So far, much of the assessment is anecdotal, whether on the Danube or the Rhine. In the Swiss port of Basel, for example, truck drivers and cargo handlers said some shipments are having to be driven partly by road.

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The Danube remains navigable, though many cargo ships are taking reduced loads because of the depth of the water. Ukraine has rerouted some grain shipments to use the Danube after Russian attacks on its Black Sea ports.

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What is clear is that it’s bad timing for a country like Romania. Its economy is expected to stagnate at best in the second half of the year, industrial production is in a prolonged decline, inflation remains high and there’s only an interim government with limited powers in place after months of political instability.

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The low water levels have also prompted governments in Bucharest and Budapest to ask citizens to curb consumption, a tough demand for farmers at the peak of the season growing staples such as tomatoes and peppers.

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“The Danube drought will not derail Romania’s economy, but an economy already in stagnation has very little room for avoidable shocks,” Valentin Tataru, chief economist for Romania at Dutch bank ING, said in a report.

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Temperatures that climbed to 41 degrees Celsius (106 Fahrenheit) around Romania on Tuesday are expected to stay high for the rest of the week. They’re complicating the Danube operation and putting further pressure on power consumption needs across the country of 19 million.

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There’s no choice than to try, though. Romanian Deputy Energy Minister Cristian Busoi said without the intervention the nuclear plant’s second reactor would also have to be shut down. 

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“I’ve lived here all my life and this is the worst drying up of the river I’ve ever seen,” said Maria Galita, 56, who was selling fruit at the side of the road near where the Danube forms the border with Bulgaria and where the authorities were trying to get the water level up.  

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Some rain is forecast in Austria for this week, but it remains to be seen if it will be enough. Temperatures across mainland Europe are forecast to be 2C to 8C warmer than normal through early August. Longer-term weather models support more rounds of high pressure, which may mean little drought-busting rainfall until later in the year.

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Romanians like Galita say they’re used to seeing sand islands in the middle of the Danube during summer, but there was never the need to intervene to keep the nuclear plant cool.