Neusiedler See nears historic low as businesses feel the strain

The water level in Lake Neusiedl is just three centimetres above its historic low, recorded in 2022, ORF reports. Businesses around the lake are already feeling the effects. At the start of this year, the lake had significantly more water than it did four years ago.

Getting boats out of the water at the end of the season has become especially difficult. In Rust, nearly 80 per cent of the boats handled by one yacht and boat service have run aground in the silted water in Rust Bay, said Isabella Bendi, who works for the business. The area in front of its boat-lifting facility had been dredged weeks earlier.

Boat-service businesses have also suffered from falling water levels over the summer. The heat kept people away from the lake and reduced sailing, Bendi said, meaning fewer boats were damaged and there was less work. Philipp Kolla, one of the few certified boat electricians at the lake, said his business was down about 30 per cent this year. He said the situation reminded him of 2022, when many people went to Lake Balaton in Hungary instead and he lost customers. Kolla warned that without more water, water sports might not be able to continue next year as people are used to them.

The lake’s low water level also affects tourism, trades, fishing and food retail, Kolla said. To retain as much water as possible, Seemanagement GmbH, a company working on the lake’s management, is among other measures cutting reeds. At Purbach on Wednesday, crews used new machinery to cut old reeds. The aim is to remove broken and bent reeds from the hinterland, the company’s managing director, Erich Gebhardt, said, adding that “today’s reed is tomorrow’s mud.”

Pipes are being laid for sludge suction in the harbours and access channels of the lake’s 14 municipalities, with work due to start at the end of October. A new sludge-settling basin is being built at Weiden am See; it will be the sixth around the lake. Gebhardt said Seemanagement GmbH operates as a commercial contractor and can be commissioned by municipalities and yacht-harbour operators. He said permission for controlled reed burning would also help, but no approval has been granted despite ongoing talks between the state and the responsible ministry.