Neighbours Falsely Blamed for Hungary's Record-Low Danube - Water Authority Explains
- 3 Aug 2026 2:04 PM
The National Water Authority (OVF) on Saturday refuted several statements regarding the Danube’s record-low water levels, saying it was untrue that "upstream countries" are holding back the river's water.
The OVF told MTI in a statement that in recent days, countless false claims have surfaced that could mislead the public.
One such false claim is that there is plenty of water in the upper reaches of the Danube, but that "we are doing something wrong" in Hungary, since the Danube is nearly drying up here and water levels are hitting record lows, the statement said.
Another frequently cited misconception is that the "upstream countries" are holding back the Danube water, and that is why there is a shortage of water in Hungary, it added.
Contrary to these false claims, the fact is that the Danube is an international waterway, so no single country has unrestricted control over its water resources, OVF said.
The use of the Danube’s water resources is governed by a multi-tiered regulatory framework: international conventions, European Union legislation, bilateral intergovernmental agreements, and national water management regulations, they said.
OVF said that the current natural flow is lower than any previously measured value.
It added that while barrages are capable of temporarily balancing or storing water flow in the short term, they cannot permanently retain the Danube’s total water supply.
It said that the primary cause of extremely low water levels is typically a lack of precipitation in the watershed and the resulting low natural inflow, rather than the long-term retention of water at the barrages.
There are 12 dams operating in Austria, which provide a short-term solution but do not fundamentally resolve the crisis caused by climate change, it said.
In Hungary, there are no barrages on the Danube that would allow for the accumulation of water reserves during periods of high water and the subsequent controlled release of water, OVF said.
As a result, water levels on the Hungarian section of the Danube directly follow the trend of extremely low natural runoff, which leads to the historically low water levels currently being observed, it added.
MTI Stock Photo
Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881.
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