Major European Rivers Continue to Dry Up

At the Kaub monitoring station on the Rhine in Germany, the water level dropped to 25 centimeters, tying the lowest record in the station’s history dating back to 1880; water levels along the entire Danube River also reached historic lows, and a local nuclear power plant in the Hungarian section was forced to shut down due to insufficient cooling water supply. River flow has decreased significantly, and the water’s self-purification capacity has declined markedly. Industrial wastewater and domestic sewage continue to accumulate along the banks, and concentrations of heavy metals, nitrogen, and phosphorus pollutants have exceeded standards in many river sections. These compounding risks threaten the ecology of the entire river basin and the safety of water supplies along its banks.