Water levels in the river Danube have fallen so low due to this summer’s dry weather in Europe that sunken Nazi warships are appearing into view.
Dozens of the Second World War German battleships, some still laden with weapons, have appeared in Serbia.
They belonged to Germany’s Black Sea fleet that the Nazis deliberately sank near the end of the conflict as Soviet forces advanced deeper into Europe.
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 once flew.
Historians say up to 200 German warships were scuttled in September 1944 near Prahovo in the Danube gorge as they came under Soviet fire.
Meanwhile, in Romania, authorities have been forced to start building a temporary dyke to divert water from the drought-hit river to its only operating nuclear power reactor.
And in neighbouring Hungary, the water level at the Paks nuclear plant fell to within a few millimetres of forcing a complete shutdown, the country’s prime minister, Peter Magyar, said.
Paks and Romania’s Cernavoda nuclear power plant both use water from the Danube for cooling, but as levels have dropped, Budapest and Bucharest have increased power imports while urging people and businesses to reduce consumption.
The low level of the Danube seen from the Margaret Bridge in Budapest. Pic: AP
A man walks on the wreckage of a Nazi warship near Djerdap II, a large dam on the Danube River near Prahovo in Serbia. Pic: AP
Romanian state-owned nuclear power producer Nuclearelectrica, which normally generates a fifth of the country’s electricity needs, shut down one of its two reactors early last week, as river levels fell.
Three of the four reactors at the Paks plant, south of Budapest, have been shut down, leaving the facility operating at just over 10% of capacity.
Authorities are closely monitoring Danube water levels in a bid to avoid having to switch off the last remaining working unit.
Mr Magyar said in a Facebook post: “Around 1.30am, we were only a few millimeters away from the full powering down of the Paks nuclear plant, but then the decline in the water level stopped and it rose 1.5cm by the morning.”
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A dried-out side channel of the Danube River in Budapest. Pic: Reuters
The wreckage of a Nazi warship near Djerdap II, a large dam on the Danube River, between Romania and Serbia. Pic: AP
In a video on the same platform recorded at the plant later, Mr Magyar said “a potentially significant amount of rain could fall in the Austrian catchment areas sometime around Thursday”, but it was not certain the rainfall would reach the Danube.
In Romania, engineers plan to sink four rock-filled barges along a branch of the Danube to divert more water towards the Cernavoda plant.
On Monday, the Romanian navy blew up a rock outcrop as the country’s state water management agency started work on the temporary dyke, which officials are hoping to have finished by Wednesday or Thursday.
The wreckage of a World War II German warship on the Danube River near the Serbian city of Prahovo. Pic: AP
Governments in both countries have urged households and businesses to limit their power use to reduce the impact of the crisis, and more than 300 businesses have made voluntary reductions, helping ease the pressure on the national grid.
But, as the hot weather persists, Mr Magyar has warned that this week will be critical.
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Further north, Polish grid operator PSE called on power companies to meet their obligations to improve reserve generation.
