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According to state news wire MTI, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said the capital’s drinking water supply remained stable and that no restrictions were currently necessary.
“However, to keep it that way, everyone can contribute by saving water in the coming days. I urge everyone: let’s demonstrate once again that Budapest is a city of solidarity,” he said Saturday on Facebook.
Karácsony said the city was nevertheless implementing a range of energy-saving measures, including slowing metro and tram services, switching off decorative lighting, ordering remote work and shutting down saunas in thermal baths.
Prime Minister Péter Magyar also repeated his call for reduced electricity and water consumption, asking the public to limit power use during the critical period between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m.
He urged people to avoid watering gardens, washing cars, filling swimming pools and other deferrable uses of drinking water in the days ahead.
Magyar described maintaining uninterrupted energy and water services as a shared responsibility.
“We thank every fellow citizen, company, local council, and institution for taking the government’s decisions and appeals seriously,” the prime minister said.
A government decree allowing major industrial consumers to be disconnected from the electricity grid if they fail to implement required consumption cuts entered into force at 7 p.m. Saturday.
The regulation amends existing rules covering significant disruptions and electricity supply crises. It is intended to strengthen the security of Hungary’s electricity supply amid changing environmental conditions, uncertainty in energy markets, lessons from international grid failures and changes in sectoral regulation.
The decree establishes a Crisis Working Group under transmission system operator MAVIR to prepare preventive and emergency measures, advise the government and relevant authorities, and coordinate national crisis management.
The group will be chaired by MAVIR’s CEO and include representatives delegated by the relevant minister, licensed operators and service providers in the electricity sector.
During situations threatening significant disruption, major disruptions or the first two stages of crisis risk, MAVIR may propose load reductions for major consumers with contracted capacity of at least 0.5 MW.
Consumers are expected to comply to the extent needed to maintain the security of electricity supply and will not receive compensation for resulting financial losses.
During significant disruption or an electricity crisis, MAVIR may issue mandatory load-reduction orders. Affected consumers must cut electricity use to the level specified, although not below the minimum required to prevent damage to equipment.
Companies that fail to comply may face compensation claims equal to the difference between actual and ordered consumption, multiplied by 200% of the average HUPX day-ahead quarter-hourly market price during the disruption or crisis.
MAVIR, together with the disaster management authority, must contact non-compliant consumers directly and give them two hours to meet the order. Failure to do so may result in their temporary disconnection from the grid.
The National Water Authority, or OVF, rejected claims that upstream countries were withholding water from the Danube and causing record-low levels in Hungary.
OVF said numerous misleading statements had circulated in recent days, including claims that abundant water remained in the river’s upper reaches or that Hungary had mismanaged its share.
The authority said no single country had unrestricted control over the Danube, which is governed through international conventions, European Union legislation, bilateral agreements and national water management rules.
OVF said the river’s current natural flow was lower than any previously measured level.
While barrages can temporarily regulate or store water, they cannot permanently retain the Danube’s total flow, it added. The primary cause of the present situation is the lack of precipitation across the river basin and the resulting low natural inflow.
Austria operates 12 dams on the Danube, but these provide only short-term regulation and cannot resolve the broader crisis caused by climate change, OVF said.
Hungary has no barrages on the Danube capable of storing water during high-flow periods and releasing it later. As a result, water levels on the Hungarian section directly reflect the exceptionally low natural runoff.
National and Budapest early-morning heat records were broken Saturday, according to weather service HungaroMet.
The temperature on János Hill in Budapest fell to only 26 degrees Celsius in the early morning.
The previous Budapest record for the date was 24.8 C, measured at the Budapest Zoo weather station in 2018. The previous national record was 23.9 C, recorded in Fonyód the same year.
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