August the 6th, 2026 – The Danube has receded so much that shipping has had to be stopped, with experts claiming that the river’s water level has never been this low.
An extremely low water level on the Danube has seriously hindered navigation near Vukovar in recent days. Some ships can no longer continue their journey, cargo vessels are stranded, and Croatia’s largest river port has had almost no traffic for ten days. Index reports that the water level of the Danube near Vukovar has dropped to minus 60 centimetres. In some sections of the fairway the river is only about 1.2 metres deep, forcing ships to reduce their cargo or stop sailing altogether.
The low water has exposed sandbanks, rocks and other underwater obstacles that are normally hidden at usual river levels. “We’ve now got to watch out for all the sandbanks, for the rocks – for all the underwater obstacles that until now were under water and inaccessible. Now, unfortunately, we keep having problems with them,” said Saša Piljaš, president of the Dunav Vukovar Sport Fishing Association, as reported by HRT.
two cargo vessels are stranded not far from erdut
The problems first affected smaller boats and are now making navigation difficult even for the largest vessels. “The fairway should be at least two metres deep for it to be worthwhile for shippers to transport cargo. Anything below that means sailing at reduced capacity, so profitability becomes questionable,” said Borna Čerina, head of the Navigation Safety Service at the Vukovar Port Authority. A cruise ship has been moored in Vukovar for a week, while two cargo ships are stranded near Erdut.
“In the fairway near the village of Erdut we have two cargo ships that ran aground a few days ago and are still sitting there. They will either have to lighten their load or wait for the water level to rise,” Čerina said.
no navigation at the port of vukovar for ten days
The consequences of the low water level are also being felt by the Port of Vukovar. In recent weeks shippers were still arriving with almost half the usual cargo, but even that traffic has now stopped.
“Over the last ten days we’ve had no navigability at all. All the barges are anchored either in their ports or in certain areas, waiting for a better draught,” said Marijan Kuprešak, director of the Port of Vukovar. If the water level does not rise soon, the port could lose a large part of its contracted traffic. “Partners who signed contracts with us were supposed to move around 200,000 tonnes of goods through the Port of Vukovar over the next three months – a significant tonnage for the port and significant revenue. It is now questionable whether the partners will organise some other form of transport, by cargo or by truck,” Kuprešak emphasised.
“I’ve never seen anything like this”
Retired port captain Ivan Barović, who worked on the Danube for more than 20 years, said he had never experienced a situation like this before. “There have been ice blockages around Dalj, and there have been high water levels when we had flooding at this spot. But the water level has never been this low,” Barović said.
The Danube is navigable almost all year round, and interruptions until now have mostly been caused by ice or floods. Such a prolonged suspension of navigation near Vukovar, according to Barović, has not been recorded before. “Captains have to use all their knowledge to bring ships safely into port. It’s another matter how profitable it is to load a ship to only 50 percent of its draught so it can pass certain sections,” he said. He warned that conditions like these may not remain an isolated case.
“I’m afraid we can’t be too optimistic, but we have to take certain steps. This is a situation where we have drought here and floods in some other area,” he stressed. The lowest water level ever measured on the Danube closr to Vukovar was recorded about a hundred years ago and stood at minus 110 centimetres.
