Austria’s largest lake is about to dry up – the water authority wants to divert the Danube

Around 80 percent of the water level in Lake Neusiedl depends on rain, but this is not enough. The Danube is supposed to protect it from drying out.

Neusiedl am See – The problem with Lake Neusiedl is that there is less and less rain, especially in winter, which means the lake is slowly drying out. Water from the Danube, which is channeled into Austria’s largest lake, is supposed to help.

Lake Neusiedl should be prevented from drying out – the Danube should help

The water from the Danube will reach Lake Neusiedl on the Austrian-Hungarian border via a 40-kilometer-long pipeline. “We want to use all means possible to prevent the lake from drying out,” said Christian Sailer from Burgenland’s water department. 80 percent of the level of Lake Neusiedl depends on rainwater. The level of the 36 kilometer long and 14 kilometer wide lake continues to fall during prolonged dry periods. Meanwhile, some regions of Austria are being hit by floods.

By diverting the Danube into Lake Neusiedl, the importance of precipitation for the water level is expected to fall to 70 percent. The plans for this are in the pipeline, but have not yet been decided because the nature impact assessment is pending. Environmentalists fear that the extraneous water will cause additional mud and algae to form in the lake. This could seriously pollute the approximately 13,000-year-old lake.

How bad is Austria’s largest lake really?

For Christian Sailer, “the current condition of Lake Neusiedl is satisfactory.” In most places it is over a meter deep, a few centimeters more than in the summer of 2022, when precipitation was rare in the area. Many newspapers there published photos of a dry lake. Patrik Hierner from Tourismus Burgenland said that “these were just snapshots. The constant wind temporarily displaced the water, but it soon flowed back again.”

The influence of fresh water from the Danube would probably prevent this phenomenon. Lake Neusiedl dries up again and again, “about once every 100 years, most recently from 1865 to 1871,” as Patrik Hierner said – that would probably no longer happen. According to the tourism expert, it is important for many tourists that the lake is constantly filled with water. The special thing is that you can stand almost anywhere in the vast area of ​​Lake Neusiedl. The water level of Lake Garda is also continuing to fall – experts are worried. (rd with dpa)