Ghosts of the past emerge as falling Danube reveals Nazi warships
Water levels on the Danube River, the second longest in Europe, have dropped so low because of drought that the hulks of dozens of World War II German warships are emerging into view.
They are a curious distraction from the summer heat crisis.
A view of the wreckage of a WWII German warship in front of Djerdap II, a large dam on the Danube River, between Romania and Serbia. Darko Vojinovic
The Danube’s record low water levels have also forced power plants to the brink of shutting down, and governments across Central and Eastern Europe are taking steps to conserve electricity.
In the middle of the river separating Serbia and Romania near the Serbian port of Prahovo, a rusty hull is now visible along with a broken mast where the Nazi flag used to fly.
The ships, some still laden with weapons, belonged to Nazi Germany’s Black Sea fleet that the Germans deliberately sank as they retreated from Romania and as Soviet forces advanced deeper into Europe near the end of the war.
Historians say up to 200 German warships were scuttled in September 1944 near Prahovo in the Danube gorge as they came under Soviet fire.
The idea behind the deliberate sinking was to slow down the Soviet advance in the Balkans.
But Nazi Germany surrendered months later, in May 1945.
The sight of the old warships is a reminder that the Serbian government, with European Union financial support, has long been trying to do something about them.
Some were removed from the river by Communist Yugoslav authorities, but most have remained because of the explosives they carried.
Now, however, authorities are trying to keep traffic flowing on the Danube, which flows through 10 nations, as the dropping water levels create dangerous conditions.
Experts have linked the unusually hot weather to global warming and other factors.
unitions lie on the exposed lake bottom of the severely shrunk Nussensee mountain lake during ongoing drought and hot weather near Bad Ischl, Austria Christian Bruna
Krsta Brandic, a Prahovo resident, said the low water levels have almost stopped ship traffic: “As you can see, the (big) ships can’t pass anymore.”
A continental crisis
Europe is the planet’s fastest-warming continent, and its summers are becoming ever more extreme as the human-caused climate crisis drives unprecedented high temperatures.
Successive, brutal heatwaves have sucked moisture from soils and waterways and continued drought has meant little relief.
The impacts are huge; Europe’s rivers are vital arteries transporting goods, cooling power plants, generating hydroelectric energy, drawing in tourists and providing a vital habitat for wildlife. As they shrink, people, economies and ecosystems are suffering.
A man walks on the wreckage of the warship. Darko Vojinovic
Europe’s rivers frequently plunge to low levels in summertime - but this year they have reached unprecedented levels in places.
Water levels in Budapest sunk to 4 inches (101.6mm) Monday, shattering the previous record low of 13 inches (330.2mm) set in 2018, according to the Associated Press.
The city is bracing for soaring temperatures this week as another heat wave scorches Central and Eastern Europe, driving fears that levels could drop even further.
The shrinking Danube has led to an energy crisis in Hungary. The Paks nuclear power plant, which generates nearly half of the country’s electricity and uses Danube water for cooling, is operating at roughly 10 per cent capacity after low water levels forced all but one of its reactors offline.
There are fears it will be forced to close completely if river levels keep shrinking.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Péter Magyar has thanked households and industry for voluntary reductions in their power consumption during peak evening hours.
Romania is also facing energy challenges. On Monday, the country’s naval forces used explosives to blast through rock in an effort to redirect water from the Danube River to the sole working reactor at its Cernavodǎ nuclear plant.
The country’s state water management agency now has plans to sink two rock-filled barges in a branch of the Danube to build a temporary dike to divert more water to the plant, Reuters reported Tuesday.
Boats sit on dry ground as water levels have dropped on the Danube River in Novi Sad, Serbia. Darko Vojinovic
Shrunken rivers are also affecting tourism, forcing some river cruises to cancel or alter services. A cruise ship ran aground on a sandbank in the Danube in Bulgaria last week.
The Rhine, which starts in the Swiss Alps and flows northward to empty out in the North Sea, is also at critical lows. The river is a key transport artery for everything from food and minerals to coal and oil.
Low winter snowfall in the Alps combined with a lack of rain and five distinct heat waves affecting large parts of the Rhine basin have caused the low river levels, said Massimiliano Zappa, a hydrologist at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research.
More records are expected to be shattered. Vadim Ghirda
Water levels at the critical river chokepoint of Kaub, near Koblenz in western Germany, were at 9 inches (228.6mm) on Wednesday. Before this year, the record low was 9.3 inches (236.2mm) set in 2018, according to Reuters, citing Germany’s Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration.
River levels are so low that commercial ships have had to reduce their loads by as much as 80 per cent to avoid running aground. It’s disrupting supply chains and making shipping more expensive.
“Shipments by barge are severely restricted, and vessels are operating with significantly reduced cargo loads,” a spokesperson for chemical company Lanxess told Reuters on Monday.
People walk on a sandbank on the Danube River. Andreea Alexandru
“As some loading and unloading points can no longer be reached, we are switching to rail and road transport wherever possible.”
Record lows were also recorded in the western German city of Cologne, and at Lobith, where the Rhine crosses from Germany into the Netherlands.
Other European rivers are also suffering, including the Po in Italy and the Loire in France, both of which are exceptionally low in parts.
Scientists warn that these record river lows are likely to be broken again and again in the future.
The warships were sunk as the Nazis retreated. Darko Vojinovic
“As the climate continues to warm, the hydrological extremes we are now experiencing will only be the tip of the iceberg,” said Richard Allan, a climate science professor at the University of Reading in England.
“Managing water resources will become progressively more challenging.”
The only way to limit these extremes, he added, is to “rapidly cut greenhouse gases across all sectors of society and support long term policies rather than short-term fire fighting.”
Share a tip-off, video or photo with us
