Hungary's Lake Velence dries to near‑record low, threatening tourism and wildlife

Lake Velence, Hungary’s third‑largest lake, measured a water level of 56 cm on 9 June at the town of Agárd – just 3 cm above the historic low of 53 cm recorded in 2022. The lake was only 10 cm above its lowest ever level at the end of May, and experts say the threshold could be reached by mid‑June, with further drops to around 30 cm by the end of summer if rainfall remains scarce. The decline is caused by prolonged drought, a lack of precipitation and decades of water‑mismanagement, including the draining of wetlands for agriculture, compounded by climate‑change‑driven evaporation that now exceeds inflow.

Tourism operators offering boating and sailing have already felt the impact, with many businesses closed for the season and some boat owners relocating to nearby Lake Balaton. Wildlife is also suffering: reed beds are deteriorating, waterfowl and fish habitats are shrinking, nesting birds and chicks are at risk as former islands become dry land, and warmer shallow water is fuelling algae blooms that degrade water quality.

Experts propose several mitigation measures: renovating the nearby Zámolyi and Pátkai reservoirs to capture more rainwater, removing sediment, restricting fishing, recycling treated wastewater from local plants, and, more ambitiously, transferring water from the Danube via wells or surface extraction – all of which would require substantial new infrastructure.