Romania's armed forces carried out a controlled demolition of the Pârjoaia rock on the Danube to divert part of the river's flow into the Old Danube channel and secure water supply for the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant. The Romanian outlet News Ro reported the operation on Monday, 3 August.
It was the second attempt at the demolition. The first, carried out the day before, failed to achieve the desired result.
Marcel Neculae, deputy chief of staff of the Romanian Navy, said several scenarios had been drawn up in response to the critical drop in the Danube's water level. After reviewing the options, specialists decided to build an underwater threshold on the Bala branch of the river.
Neculae said barges loaded with stone, along with empty barges that would be filled with material from that day's and the following day's blasts, were expected to work together to build the underwater threshold from the next day. He said officials hoped the structure would be ready by Tuesday and would raise the water level in the Old Danube and, in turn, near the Cernavodă plant, according to comments carried by the outlet Profit.
Government warns of a difficult situation
The Romanian government said on 1 August that it was doing everything possible to prevent the Cernavodă plant from shutting down, but acknowledged the situation remained difficult because most European countries were suffering from drought and heat. Rain had fallen only in Austria, and that water was not expected to reach Cernavodă for around two weeks.
The forecast remained unfavourable, with the government saying the Danube's water level would keep falling at least until 7 August. Officials estimated that at the current water level, and especially if it fell further, the Cernavodă plant would only be able to operate at the limit of its capacity for four to five more days.
The plant's first reactor unit was shut down on 29 July, cutting Romania's domestic electricity production by roughly 10 percent at a time of high consumption driven by the heat.
Why the Danube crisis matters for Ukraine
The Danube is currently going through one of its most serious crises in decades because of abnormal heat and prolonged drought across Central and Southern Europe. The situation matters for Ukraine for several reasons.
The Danube is one of Europe's key transport corridors and a strategic export route for Ukraine. A significant share of Ukraine's grain and metal exports, as well as fuel imports, passes through the Ukrainian ports of Reni, Izmail and Ust-Dunaisk. Low water levels push up transport costs and reduce the route's capacity. If low water forces European businesses to cut production, that in turn affects demand for Ukrainian exports and the cost of imported goods.
Low water levels also degrade water quality and speed up algae blooms, including in the Danube Delta, part of which lies within Ukraine.
Minister defends the operation
After the demolition of the Pârjoaia rock, Romania's acting defence minister, Radu Miruță, said one additional day of operation at the Cernavodă plant was roughly three times more valuable financially than the cost of the works.
Miruță said that regardless of the final outcome for the Cernavodă plant in the coming days, destroying the rock was important both for shipping and for the further deepening of the Old Danube channel's bed. He said the stage of the operation carried out that day, for which the army was responsible, had been successful.
He said the project behind the demolition had been drawn up several years earlier.
According to Miruță, the Danube splits into branches at that point, with the Bala branch having a level drop of around four metres. As a result, about 85 percent of the river's flow goes through the Bala branch, while only 15 percent is directed toward Cernavodă. He said a project had been designed to raise the bed of the Bala branch and deepen the Old Danube channel in order to redistribute the flow and correct the imbalance, but it was never carried out. He said officials found the project at the Ministry of Transport, where it had been blocked since April 2024.
Neighbouring countries also under pressure
On 31 July, it was reported that record-low water levels on the Danube would force Hungary's only nuclear power plant, Paks, to shut down for one or several days, the first such shutdown in its 44-year history.
In Serbia, the Danube risks becoming unnavigable because of the drought, and passenger transport on the river there has already been suspended.
