A ruling by the Upper Danube Administrative Court on Friday stopped Austria from releasing 420 million cubic metres (about 111 billion US gallons) of stored water for farms, delaying a measure officials said was needed to protect next summer’s crops. The three-judge panel ordered a review of effects on downstream wetlands before the drawdown can proceed.
The decision lands as the Alpine Basin Institute warns that the upper Danube is entering its most severe agricultural drought in more than six decades. Its researchers say another dry winter could leave farms across Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia short of water through the 2027 growing season.
Reservoirs become the battleground
A study published last month in the Journal of Hydroclimate used 16,000 weather and crop simulations to model the next harvest. In its worst case, if rainfall remains below 65% of the seasonal average through June, the six countries would produce 9.2 million tonnes less wheat, maize and barley than expected by September 2027.
The institute assigns that outcome a one-in-four chance, not a certainty. Its monitoring stations show rainfall in the upper Danube catchment 38% below the 1991–2020 average over the past 11 months, while soil moisture has fallen to its lowest October reading since records began in 1961.
We are discussing a food shock, not a dry summer holiday.
Eleonóra Fialová, hydrologist at the Alpine Basin Institute
Farmers’ groups condemned the judgment as a blow delivered at the worst possible moment. Nico Pointner, who represents growers in Upper Austria, said reservoirs were being held back while fields dried out; the halted release had been intended to feed irrigation channels from three reservoirs beginning next week.
Forecasts collide with assurances
The court said the government’s emergency order failed to set minimum flows for sensitive river stretches and had not assessed the combined effect of withdrawals downstream. Betty L. Hansson, a water-policy adviser to the government, said the order could be revised quickly and insisted that “drinking water is not at risk this winter”.
Fialová challenged the reassurance as too narrow. Most towns can draw on deep wells and stored supplies, she said, but farms rely on surface water during the growing season; a safe tap today does not mean a safe harvest next year. She called for a basin-wide assessment instead of assurances based on household reserves.
Austria’s agriculture and water ministries are discussing temporary limits on garden watering and pool filling, alongside a reserve fund to help farmers buy feed if pasture growth fails. Officials have not proposed household rationing. The government says it will file a revised water plan by 30 October, the date set by the court for its next review.
The dispute reaches beyond Austria’s borders: the Danube carries water through several of the countries included in the institute’s projections, and low river flows could also restrict irrigation and barge traffic. Researchers caution that rain before spring could ease the outlook, but say the region cannot count on one wet month to refill depleted soils and reservoirs.
The court has not prohibited a release permanently; it has made a new environmental review a condition of restarting one. For farmers preparing winter crops, the delay is already costly, Pointner said. Scientists want the revised plan to include shared drought thresholds and crop forecasts before the next planting decisions are made.
