Water level falls to record low of 7cm in Warsaw's Vistula river

The water level in the Vistula, Poland's longest river, has fallen to its lowest-ever recorded level of just 7cm in Warsaw.

This summer has seen successive unwanted records broken in Poland's capital city. In July, the water level at the Vistula boulevards measuring station hit a new all-time low of 19cm , well below the minimum safe threshold of 150cm.

By early August, the level had risen to 118cm, but it has been on a constant downward trend ever since, falling below 19cm on 17 August and below 10cm yesterday. This morning, Poland's state meteorological and hydrological institute, IMWM-PIB, reported the new record low of 7cm.

The agency's modeling tool for predicting water levels forecasts that the Vistula will fall to 6cm tomorrow before rising to 12cm by the end of August.

IMWM-PIB has also found low water levels in other rivers around Poland. Only at one monitoring station, in Dziarny on the Iławka river, is the water level currently above the warning level, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Marcin Świtoniak, a professor of environmental sciences at Nicolaus Copernicus University, told PAP that the findings “are not a surprise” and are “the consequences of phenomena observed for years”. He noted that lower snowfall in winter means less meltwater in the spring.

He urged the authorities to make more effort to ensure that water is retained in the soil rather than being lost.

Bogdan Chojnicki, a professor of environmental engineering at Poznań University of Life Sciences, told RMF broadcaster that forecasts of a heatwave in September mean that drought and low water levels are likely to continue into the autumn.

Over 70% of water demand for Warsaw and surrounding cities is met by the Vistula. However, with the Municipal Water and Sewage Company (MPWiK) also able to draw water from the nearby Zegrze lake, it says that supplies should not be affected.

“We reassure Warsaw residents that there will be no shortage of tap water,” said MPWiK fulfillment Jolanta Maliszewska, quoted by broadcaster TVN.

However, since 12 August, ferry services on the Vistula have been indefinitely suspended by the municipal transport authority due to the low water levels.

Main image credit: Slawomir Kaminski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl