In pictures: Europe’s mighty rivers are drying up in the climate-driven drought

Europe’s major rivers are shrinking under the most severe climate-driven drought in decades.

It’s distressing enough to see mighty waterways like the Loire, Po and Rhine reduced to a trickle in places.  But the ongoing drought is also revealing how much we depend on them for trade, energy and transport.

The Rhine’s evaporation is especially concerning. At the chokepoint of Kaub, near Frankfurt, it is expected to fall below 40cm on Friday. This would make it impassable for some larger ships carrying supplies of oil, coal and gas. 

German power plants are particularly dependent on the deliveries as Russia restricts gas flow, and the drought could compound the country’s energy crisis.

France, which uses the most nuclear energy in the EU, has also recently run into hot water on the Rhône and Garonne rivers. This week, electricity utility company EDF had to reduce output at some of its power stations as temperatures were too high to use river water to cool the plants down.

Meanwhile shocking photos of the Loire near its mouth at Nantes yesterday show far more river bed than water, with an essentially redundant bridge to the Loireauxence commune.

Across Europe, here’s how photographers have been documenting the devastating impact of heatwaves and drought on our waterways.

Flowing from the Swiss Alps, carving much of the Franco-German border, defining the German Rhineland and careering into the Netherlands before reaching the North Sea, the Rhine is a formative part of Europe. 

As well as threatening shipping routes in Germany, its current low levels are causing problems for house boat owners on distributary branches, such as on the Netherlands' Waal River.

Italy's longest river, the Po, has been struggling to retain its width during