The northern parts of Romania are experiencing a prolonged lack of precipitation and high temperatures, coupled with historic minimum flows for numerous regional rivers. The Someș-Tisa Water Basin Administration announced this week that 12 hydrological stations have reached zero flow, while another 15 have recorded historic minimum flows, well below the normal values for this period. At 34 stations out of the total of 103 hydrometric monitoring points on the watercourses in the basin, the previous minimum flow record was reached or exceeded. According to the Someș-Tisa Water Basin Administration, cited by Mediafax, the most vulnerable is the Vârșolț reservoir on the Crasna River, in Sălaj County. Romania declared a nationwide energy state of alert for August amid reduced electricity generation caused by severe drought and exceptionally low river levels.