This article on Euro News reports on the water shortages striking across Europe. The culprit seems to be the heatwave.

In France, more than 100 municipalities short of drinking water, and trucks are being used to take them water.

In Italy, "rice production in the river Po Valley is under severe threat as drought and hot weather continue to cause paddy fields to completely dry up and become salty from use of aquifers." The effects of the salt could last for years.

On Wednesday The Netherlands declared an official water shortage, after already having imposed limits on agriculture and shipping. The Netherlands is the world's second-largest agricultural exporter, so there could be food shortages as a result (as if there weren't already food shortages).

In Germany, the upper reaches of the Rhine river are drying up, according to this report on Business Insider, and the middle reaches (heavily used for goods transport) have such low water levels that ships are running at 25% capacity. There is concern about cooling water for power stations (due to heating of the river water). All major waterways in Germany seem to be affected.

There are similar problems with water levels in the Danube, which flows through Germany, Austria, Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, Serbia, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Croatia.

In Britain there are also water shortages in some areas, with a legal battle going on between Southern Water and Fish Legal over plans to extract more water from the River Test, as reported by the Guardian. There are already hosepipe bans in place in some areas, and things are expected to get worse.

Even Norway, land of fjords, has water shortages, and is considering reducing electricity supplies to the UK as a conservation measure (much of Norway's capacity is hydroelectric), as reported by The Express.

What is shocking is how early in the season these shortages have hit, and how widespread they are. These problems may be a harbinger of times to come.