The Danube levels have gone up to 12, 500 cubic meters/second at the river’s entry gate into Romania, 5000 cm/s more than usual, according to an Environment Ministry’s press release.

The hydrologists have warned the local authorities in the concerned areas that the Danube level will overpass the critical depth this weekend, when a new water flow is expected on Sunday.

The river flow will reach 12,800 cm/s, and the Iron Gate I and II hydro-power stations will try to deal with it, but will cause higher levels of the river in some localities on the Danube river sides.

Almost 21,000 households and 290,000 ha of land are at risk of being flooded in the riverbank counties of Mehedinti, Dolj, Olt, Teleorman, Giurgiu, Calarasi, Ialomita, Braila, Constanta and Tulcea.

In county of Tulcea, hundreds of households are under water and people have been evacuated in the wake of the collapse of three dams. Authorities ordered first degree emergency state in the area.

In county of Braila, waters weakened the dams and 120 ha of land were flooded. A similar situation was recorded in county of Constanta.

In Galati, the Danube level has exceeded with 9 cm the critical depth, a situation that has not been recorded in the last 80 years, affecting the Damen shipyard where half of the activities have been shut down.

The local authorities have strengthened the dams and took additional measures for supervising the water levels, imposing a speed reduction on the Oltenita sector for the boats.