site.btaMany Vessels Waiting to Pass Critical Danube Sections, Some Grounded Outside Navigation Channel

Many vessels are waiting to pass through the most critical sections of the Danube River because of low water levels, while several have run aground outside the navigation channel, Executive Director of the Executive Agency for Exploration and Maintenance of the Danube River Ivelin Zanev said on Tuesday.

He said that, as of Tuesday, the river level at Ruse stood at minus 94 cm, two cm lower than a day earlier. It is forecast to fall to minus 100 cm by the end of the week.

At Svishtov, the level is minus 30 cm, compared with a record low of minus 55 cm, while at Lom it is minus 4 cm, against the previous record low of plus 11 cm. Zanev said that previous record-low levels had been registered in September 2025, whereas in 2026 they are being observed as early as the beginning of August.

He said the low-water conditions are likely to persist for at least another month, with further developments depending on the weather.

According to Zanev, vessels have run aground in the areas of Belene, Somovit and the village of Garvan near Silistra. However, they are outside the boundaries of the navigation channel and are not obstructing traffic along the fairway, while waiting for navigation conditions to improve.

Zanev said that the passenger vessel which ran aground on July 28 near the Vidin village of Gomotartsi, prompting the evacuation of passengers with the assistance of Border Police, has since been freed and continued its journey through the Serbian section of the Danube.

Zanev said that many vessels and convoys remain at anchor because of insufficient depths in critical sections of the river. The minimum measured depth at Belene and Batin is currently around 1.6 metres, while in the other sections it is 1.8 metres or more. This prevents more heavily loaded vessels from passing, and they prefer to wait for more favourable conditions.

“The situation in the Belene area is concerning because the water level is extremely low. Many newly formed sandbanks can be seen. The navigation channel there is about 60 metres wide, with a minimum depth of 1.6 metres. There is also a grounded barge in the area which is being assisted by another vessel,” Zanev said.

He added that navigation would not be suspended by administrative order. However, some shipowners may decide to halt transport operations themselves if they consider them economically unviable under the current conditions.

Zanev said the agency carries out year-round monitoring of water levels and depths, maintenance dredging of the navigation channel and marking of the fairway, and also uses virtual buoys to assist navigation. He stressed, however, that these are short-term or, at best, medium-term measures and that larger-scale hydraulic engineering solutions are needed to address the problem.

Commenting on speculation that releasing water through the Iron Gates locks could improve the situation, Zanev said the facilities are currently not filled to full capacity and that even such a measure would not have as significant an effect as some suggest.

Regarding cruise ships, he said most have a draught of between 1.6 and 1.8 metres and do not risk passing through the most critical sections.

Zanev also commented on the situation at the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), saying that the plant has strict safety protocols in place and that the Agency maintains constant coordination with it. He said there is currently enough water in the canal supplying the cooling system and there is no problem.

The Kozloduy NPP has taken measures to ensure the safe and reliable operation of its nuclear facilities due to record-low water levels in the Danube River, the plant said in response to a question from the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) at end-July.

On Sunday, the Energy Ministry said that the NPP’s two units continued to operate at their planned load despite record-low water levels in the Danube.