The water in Lake Balaton, 160 kilometres (100 miles) southwest of Budapest, was as of last week 30 centimetres (about one foot) below its normal level.

"To get a picture of what this means, imagine a corridor 70 metres by five metres with water only two millimetres deep," said Rudolf Keresztes, an enthusiastic wind surfer.

Keresztes said he feared that the water in Lake Balaton could drop so low that there will "no longer be enough water to windsurf or to swim."

"You've already got to walk," he said, pointing to a 150-200 metres long sandbar in the water.

The experts are also worried.

"This lack of water will sooner or later have a deadly effect on the quality of the lake," said Karoly Kutics, an engineer and researcher at the Balaton development council, an umbrella organization for several communities bordering the lake.

"Precipitation is very localized in Hungary so that even with the flooding of recent years, there has been practically no rain over Balaton for three years," Kutics said.

He said the falling water level in the lake could cause a host of problems.

"Algae could grow in shallow water, and algae can become slimy and foul-smelling in a layer that easily warms and becomes the ground for yet more algae," Kutics said.

This would affect the quality of the water and hurt not only boating but tourism, he said.

Tourists are already staying away, but this is mainly due to high prices and poor service in the region.

In 2002, Lake Balaton had one of its worse tourist seasons.

Hungary's Environment Minister Maria Korodi, however, is not worried about the lake's environment.

"It is true that the water level is low but this has already happened in previous decades. The water quality is good," Korodi said.

Kutics has proposed channelling water into the lake through the Raba, Drava or Mura rivers.

A study of the "the ecological effect of mixing 'foreign waters'" is to be made in November.

Kutics favors using the Raba river but its water flow varies from year to year, particularly during the summer.

Kutics said a "solution must be found based on strictly scientific criterion."

He said he hopes that two Japanese hydrology experts due to arrive later this year will bring some new ideas.

Meteorologists, ecologists and government water officials met earlier this month to discuss the issue.

A study being drawn up by the government's water office concedes that Lake Balaton lacks "120 million cubic metres of water", but describes this more as a social than an environmental problem since the low water level is not yet having an environmental impact.

A local mayor, Gabor Lombar of the town of Balatonfenyves, said a low-cost and rapid solution might be to drain nearby beaches and then to drop the dredged-up mud in the middle of the lake.

SPACE.WIRE