Danube Sits Four Centimetres Above Its 1909 Low
Bezdan gauge reads minus 139 centimetres and the forecast for August 3 is minus 142. The all-time low from 1909 is minus 143. Sombor, Kula and Vrbas are under emergency rule.
How low is the Danube this July? Four centimetres above the lowest level ever recorded in Serbia.
At Bezdan, where the river crosses from Croatia into Serbia, the gauge read minus 139 centimetres in figures published on July 31. The Republic Hydrometeorological Institute (RHMZ) forecast for August 3 is minus 142. The all-time minimum, set in 1909, is minus 143.
The highest level ever measured here was 850 centimetres. Almost eight metres of water separate that number from today’s.
What changed in a few days
When we last wrote about the Danube it stood at minus 127 centimetres and water restrictions were still only a warning. That Wednesday reading was what pushed the Provincial Government to declare a state of emergency on July 30, on the proposal of the Provincial Emergency Headquarters, for the city of Sombor and the municipalities of Kula and Vrbas.
270 million dinars, roughly 2.3 million euros, has been set aside for urgent works keeping the Danube-Tisa-Danube hydro system running. The money goes to the public water company Vode Vojvodine.
Pump station Bezdan 2 has already stopped. The river dropped below the level its pumps were built for. Agriculture Minister Dragan Glamocic put it in one line: “The Danube has fallen below the level for which the existing capacities of the pump station were originally designed.”
Is rain coming in August?
Not according to the institute. RHMZ hydrologist Dejan Vladikovic leaves little room for it:
Over the next 15 to 20 days, and through all of August, no significant rainfall is expected either here or in the upstream countries, so the situation will be very serious and it will have a negative effect on river traffic.
Bezdan is not an isolated case. “At several gauging stations the lowest water level in the past 50 years was measured,” Vladikovic said. In about ten days the institute starts issuing biological minimum alerts, meaning the level below which a river ecosystem stops working normally.
What it means at home
Three things are already being felt, and none of them depend on the forecast.
- Cargo vessels on the Danube are sailing at 25 to 30 percent of capacity, which raises the price of everything that moves by river, from fertiliser to coal.
- Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic has asked households to use electricity sparingly. Hydro plants run on less water in August, the month when air conditioning pushes demand to its peak.
- The emergency in three Vojvodina municipalities puts drinking water and irrigation first, so local rules on watering gardens and filling pools can arrive with little notice.
Beyond the Danube, the Zapadna Morava, Juzna Morava, Velika Morava and its tributaries are all at critical levels. Vojvodina is in the spotlight, but this is not only a northern problem.
The practical advice for the coming weeks is dull, which is exactly why it works: water gardens early in the morning, run washing machines full, and keep heavy appliances out of the late afternoon peak. If restrictions come, they arrive first as a request and only then as a schedule.
