Police in Bulgaria evacuated 186 tourists from a cruise ship this week after it ran aground on a dried-up section of the Danube River. The Viking Ullur, which was near the port city of Vidin, was unable to reach port after encountering a shallow shoal, leading to passengers reportedly running out of food and water.
The Danube River, which flows through 10 countries, has receded to unprecedented low levels along much of its course. In Budapest, Hungary's capital, the national water authority measured the Danube's water level at 23 centimetres on Wednesday morning, which is below the previous all-time low of 33 centimetres set in 2018.
These low water levels have forced popular cruise ships to dock far upriver from Budapest, while cargo ships have almost entirely ceased operations, according to Hungary’s Ministry of Transport and Investment. The river is expected to recede further in the coming days, with no significant rain forecast and temperatures anticipated to rise above 38 degrees Celsius across the region.
The receding waters are also affecting nuclear energy production. In Romania, a reactor unit at the Cernavoda power plant was shut down on Tuesday for safety reasons due to low Danube water flow, and another is expected to be shut down soon. Hungary’s Paks nuclear plant also began powering down a reactor on Wednesday due to restricted cooling-water supplies, following two previous power output reductions.