Vessels blocked on Danube due to low water level

Some 60 vessels have been blocked on Danube River after the water level dropped by half due to severe drought in upstream countries along the river.

Water flow is 50 percent lower than the annual July average of about 5,400 cubic meters/second in Bazias, south-eastern Romania, where the Danube enters the country from Serbia.

The worst situation is in Zimnicea, some 300 km away from the waterway end Agigea Port. There is a bottleneck of nearly one kilometer where ships have to sail slowly along the special buoys to avoid the risk of stranded.

• Earlier, the Danube shipping authorities in Romanian informed on Wednesday that vessels could have only half load in most of the waterway in the country.

The Danube is Europe's second-longest river and passes through more countries than any other river in the world.

Today, as "Corridor VII" of the European Union, the Danube is an important transport route. Since the opening of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal, the river connects the Port of Rotterdam and the industrial centres of Western Europe with the Black Sea.
   Source:Xinhua - globaltimes.cn
31/7/15