site.btaSerbia Warns Danube Water Levels Could Halt River Navigation

The head of Serbia's port administration, Milan Nikolic, warned that exceptionally low water levels on the Danube near Novi Sad, Bezdan, Apatin and Bogojevo could lead to the suspension of river navigation in Serbia, local media reported on Wednesday.

The unusually low water levels are the result of prolonged drought and high temperatures across Europe. According to official data from the Hydrometeorological Service of Serbia, water levels at many monitoring stations have fallen below the navigational reference level.

Nikolic said the Directorate for Inland Waterways is continuously monitoring the situation and marking the navigation channel, while ship captains are required to adjust the size of their convoys and the draught of their vessels accordingly. He stressed that experienced captains could still navigate safely even at low water levels, provided they complied with depth restrictions and the maximum permitted draught.

Nikolic warned the public not to walk on the newly formed sandbanks, saying that a single misstep can have serious consequences. "We must respect the river and nature, and we must not play with them," Nikolic told Serbia's public broadcaster RTS.

Two days earlier, the Danube near the Croatian village of Batina fell to a record low of minus 110 centimetres, the lowest level since measurements began and 17 centimetres below the previous record low set in 2022, according to state water management company Croatian Waters.

Experts expect only a slight rise in the Danube's water level in Serbia over the next few days as a wave of higher water arrives from Hungary. After that, the downward trend is expected to continue.

The low water level is already affecting irrigation systems, river navigation and the Danube's ecosystem, while barges are being loaded with significantly smaller cargoes to enable them to pass through the river's shallowest sections, RTS reported.