DANUBE DOLDRUMS

In January this year a Ukrainian cargo vessel ran aground on the Danube where the river runs through northern Bulgaria. Refloating her took days, a hiccup that created a major bottleneck because it forced an abrupt halt to marine traffic voyaging up- and downstream.

The incident had nothing to do with the skipper’s carelessness or sobriety. The unusually low level of the river was to blame. It’s a growing problem for barges, cargo vessels and small ships – as well as for the river’s frenetic tourism industry, where scores of flat-bottomed ships carry thousands of happy sightseers along the river every year – between Amsterdam in the northwest and Budapest in the southeast.

Exceptionally dry summers in Europe are increasingly common. And that’s exacerbated by disappearing glaciers in the mountain ranges that