The turbines at Tiszalök fell silent on 27 August, but the most important story is not the electricity that disappeared from the grid. It is the water that Hungary can no longer afford to use in the same way. As the Tisza’s flow has fallen to exceptionally low levels, water managers are changing the way the river is controlled — releasing stored water from Tiszalök downstream while trying to protect the remaining reserves of Lake Tisza and secure drinking water supplies farther south.
Author: Zotya Rokonál
When the water itself becomes the scarce resource
At Tiszalök, the change was gradual rather than dramatic. As the Tisza’s flow declined, the familiar operating regime of the Tiszalök Water Barrage became increasingly difficult to maintain. By the morning of 27 August, electricity generation at the Tiszalök Hydropower Plant had stopped.
The plant has an installed capacity of 12.9 megawatts, although its actual output had already fallen to minimal levels during the preceding period of exceptionally low water. The shutdown therefore represents a relatively small loss for Hungary’s overall electricity system and does not threaten the electricity supply of Tiszalök or the surrounding region.
The significance of the shutdown lies elsewhere. It is one of the clearest signs yet of how far the current water shortage has progressed. The crucial distinction is that the Tiszalök facility is not simply a power station. The wider water-control system has a much more important role in regulating the Tisza. In the present emergency, that function has taken priority over electricity generation.
A barrage built for water management, not just power
The situation at Tiszalök illustrates an aspect of hydropower that can easily disappear from public discussion: turbines are only one part of a much larger river-management system. According to the North Hungarian Water Management Directorate (ÉMVIZIG), the current water level and discharge are no longer sufficient for the hydropower plant to operate. The authority has therefore taken over water control at the Tiszalök Water Barrage using its No. 3 tilting gate.
At the same time, the upstream water level at Tiszalök is being gradually reduced. The level, which had been around 420 centimetres, is expected to fall towards approximately 400 centimetres over about a week. The measure is intended to allow additional water to be transferred towards Lake Tisza, the Eastern Main Canal and the Körös Valley, where water shortages have also become increasingly serious. That may sound counterintuitive: when water is scarce, why release more of it?
The answer lies downstream. The available water reserves now have to be redistributed along the river system to protect more critical needs farther south. The objective is not to restore the Tisza to normal summer conditions, which would be impossible under the current inflow. Instead, water managers are trying to make the remaining reserves last as long as possible while directing them towards the areas where they are most urgently needed.
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The numbers behind the drought
The scale of the problem is particularly striking in the Tisza’s catchment. The river’s flow does not depend solely on rainfall around Tiszalök. Precipitation across the entire catchment, soil moisture, tributary flows, groundwater conditions and evaporation all determine how much water ultimately reaches the Hungarian section of the river.
This year, the catchment has received exceptionally little precipitation, while persistent heat has increased evaporation. The result is a particularly difficult combination: less water is entering the system, while more is being lost.
The consequences are already visible around Lake Tisza. Earlier this month, Daily News Hungary reported that the lake’s water level had fallen below 700 centimetres at the Kisköre upper gauge, with water-management authorities pointing to the lack of rainfall, exceptionally low inflows and increased evaporation as key factors.
The situation has since deteriorated further. The problem is not simply that the landscape looks different. Lower water levels affect habitats, recreation, navigation and the ability of the wider water-management system to meet competing demands.
More on Hungary’s water crisis: Lake Tisza under threat: alarm bells ring at tourist hotspot
Why 610 centimetres matters
One of the most important figures in the current situation is 610 centimetres. This is the minimum operating water level at Kisköre-felső that has become critical for the management of Lake Tisza. Once the reservoir reaches that level, the amount of water that can be released downstream becomes increasingly constrained. Further depletion could create serious ecological consequences.
This is why the water released from the Tiszalök area has become so important. The purpose is not simply to send as much water downstream as possible. It is an attempt to manage a shrinking resource across a connected system of rivers, canals and reservoirs.
The challenge is essentially one of timing. Water retained today can protect one part of the system, but it cannot simultaneously serve every downstream need. If too much is held back, lower sections of the Tisza face greater pressure. If too much is released, reserves elsewhere can be exhausted more quickly.
The consequences are already visible in Tiszalök
For people living around Tiszalök, the crisis is not merely a number on a hydrological chart. The shrinking water level is particularly visible around the Kis-Tisza oxbow area. As the water retreats, exposed mudflats and changing shorelines become increasingly prominent.
For boat owners, the conditions also bring practical hazards. Vessels can become stranded in shallow or muddy areas, while previously submerged sections of the riverbank may become unstable. Anyone using the waterway therefore needs to take considerably greater care than under normal conditions. The wider Tisza region has been showing similar warning signs.
Just days before the Tiszalök shutdown, Daily News Hungary reported that another popular Hungarian lake was experiencing critical water shortages, with large areas of exposed lakebed visible around the Bölömbika lookout. Taken together, these developments show that the current drought is not an isolated local problem. It is affecting several interconnected water systems at the same time.
See the photos: Another popular Hungarian lake dries out, Bölömbika lookout shows critical conditions
The pressure moves downstream
The most sensitive point may ultimately be farther south, at Szolnok. According to current water-management calculations, extremely low water levels could develop there if the Tisza’s discharge falls further. That is where the water shortage becomes a direct question of public infrastructure. The Tisza is an important source of drinking water for Szolnok and surrounding settlements.
Earlier this year, Daily News Hungary reported that authorities had prepared a floating water-intake system in Szolnok because of the exceptionally low river level, including mobile pumps that could be activated if conventional water abstraction became difficult. The current situation therefore goes beyond agriculture or environmental protection. At sufficiently low water levels, drought can become an issue of basic public infrastructure and drinking-water security.
Watch the video: River Tisza nears historic low as tens of thousands face risk of water shortages
Electricity is losing the argument to water security
The Tiszalök shutdown also raises an uncomfortable question about renewable energy in a changing climate. Hydropower is renewable, but its output depends directly on water availability. During an extreme drought, the same river may simultaneously be needed for drinking water, ecological protection, agriculture, water transfers and electricity generation.
In Tiszalök, the priorities are now clear: water regulation comes first. The shutdown was announced publicly by Péter Lajos Szakács, the local Member of Parliament for the Tisza party. He stressed that the hydropower plant’s primary role is water-flow regulation and that electricity generation is a secondary function. He also said that the electricity supply of Tiszalök and the surrounding region remains secure, while the Paks Nuclear Power Plant is operating at full capacity.
This distinction is important. The loss of 12.9 MW of installed hydropower capacity does not amount to an electricity crisis for the region. What it demonstrates is something different: when a river becomes severely depleted, electricity production can no longer be treated as the overriding purpose of the infrastructure built around it. The water itself has become more valuable than the electricity that could be generated from it.
How long can the system keep adapting?
That may be the most important unanswered question. Water-management authorities are continuously monitoring river levels and reservoir conditions. Water transfers are being reduced where necessary, and some irrigation activities have been suspended. Emergency measures are also being prepared where drinking-water supplies could eventually be affected.
But no water-management intervention can manufacture rainfall. The longer the drought persists, the more difficult the choices become. Sending water downstream can protect drinking-water supplies but reduce reserves elsewhere. Retaining water can protect ecosystems or future users but leave lower reaches under greater pressure.
Maintaining hydropower production can generate electricity, but when water has become scarce enough, that may no longer be the responsible priority. The Tiszalök shutdown is therefore best understood not as an isolated power-sector event, but as a visible sign of a much wider water crisis.
For now, the authorities are managing the available reserves and trying to protect the most critical functions of the river system. Whether the Tiszalök turbines can resume generation later this year will ultimately depend on something that no control gate can provide: enough water arriving from upstream. Until then, the silent turbines at Tiszalök are less a story about lost electricity than a measure of how seriously Hungary’s water shortage has developed.
