Austria's water supply levels are at their lowest since records began around a century ago, utility Verbund (VERB.VI) said, as an exceptionally hot, dry summer leaves sections of the Danube dramatically depleted and curbs hydropower production.
At the Greifenstein hydroelectric power plant upstream of Vienna, a white mark more than a metre (yard) above the current waterline shows how much higher the river used to be, while a former floating restaurant sits abandoned on a muddy riverbed.
The listed, majority state-owned utility, which mainly produces hydropower, said the prolonged lack of precipitation and snowmelt showed that even water-abundant Austria was nearing its limits after consecutive dry years.
"This is an unprecedented situation," Verbund spokesman Florian Seidl said during a tour of the plant.
In a usual summer about 2,000 cubic metres (71,000 cubic feet) of water per second flow down the Danube here. Currently the figure is about 700, he said.
Austria is a water-rich country - the opening line of its national anthem is "Land of mountains, land of rivers". Yet this hot, dry summer is proving the resource is far from infinite, which has strong implications for a country where hydropower usually accounts for most of its electricity production.
'WE ARE REACHING OUR LIMITS'
Verbund's overall hydropower production in the first half of 2026 was 32 percentage points below the long-term average.
"The winter of 2025–2026 brought practically no snow at all. Whatever precipitation there was fell as rain. That meant our output in spring 2026 was still satisfactory, but it was clear to everyone that this situation wouldn't last," Seidl said, adding that there was no "normal" precipitation yet this year.
While the situation is not as dramatic as downstream in Hungary or Romania, it is still serious.
Sharp changes from year to year have become common, Seidl's colleague Ingun Metelko said.
"We are a water-rich Alpine country but years such as 2026, which follows an already dry 2025, show we too are reaching our limits and we may need to manage our water resources more carefully," she said, adding that it was important to further develop wind and solar to switch between sources flexibly.
