BUDAPEST - Hungarian companies and households have cut their power consumption this week in an unprecedented way, after a government appeal to ease pressure on the grid amid a severe drought that people have described as a “wake-up call”.

As Budapest braces for the peak of the heatwave on Aug 5 and Aug 6, with temperatures of 40 deg C to 42 deg C expected, some residents standing on the bare sandbanks of the record-low Danube at the foot of the city’s historic Margaret Bridge said the reality of climate change had finally kicked in.

The river’s levels have forced Hungary to largely shut down its sole nuclear plant, which uses the Danube’s waters as a coolant, creating an energy crisis stretching its power supply capacity to its limits, with imports surging.

The plant, the backbone of the grid, may keep running at just over 10 per cent of its capacity for weeks depending on the river’s levels.

“It’s a sad and scary thing, and a very serious warning to society that we need to be careful with our resources... It’s a very serious wake-up call,” Budapest resident Krisztina Nemeth said, looking at the Danube, wearing a straw hat against the heat.

Some people have built eerie cairns in the bare riverbed to mark the moment.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Peter Magyar has repeatedly thanked companies and households who have voluntarily reduced their power usage by 600MW to 700MW each day in the peak consumption period between 5pm and 10pm.

He wrote on Facebook on Aug 5 that more critical days lay ahead.