Hidrológiai Közlöny 1974 (54. évfolyam)

3-4. szám - Könyvismertetés

Hidrológiai Közlöny 1974. 3—4. sz. 136 particular cases and long-term water management planning for minor districts and later greater areas, we have reached the stage, where an economically well-founded perspective water management planning on national-scale is in progress, besides actual planning activity, even in formulating and implementing international agreements in collaboration with the foreign partners interested. This active national-scale long-term water management planning shows the way for regional planning by outlining its framework and by determining its initial and boundary conditions. The consequences oi long-term water management planning appear in ail lieias of life and tneir importance can be compared to that oi communication, raw material supply or energy supply only, but tneir complexity is even nigner. While ine advances in tecnnoiogy make new sources oi energy economically avaname, the finite water resources are essentially known and depending on uses are becoming increasingly polluted, so tnat instead of growing they tend to decrease and to deteriorate. Tnese diminishing resources are called upon to meet the rapidly growing demands without difficulties. , Whereas any shortage in raw materials or energy appears immediately and those responsible can taKe remedial measures, the errors in long-term water management planning are much more dangerous, because misjudgements take a long time to prove so. By the time tnat this is realized even the resources oi potential future economic development are exhausted. Misjudgement in long-term water management planning may thus result not only in a relapse of civilization but also in extended damages to industry. Imports of water from the surrounding countries as of other raw materials or of energy are unlikely until the continental supply network oi water exploited from the oceans or from the polar ice cover is realized. It is clearly recognized that the management of water resources presents the same problems to our neighbours as to us and that in the case of incorrect perspective water management planning the present resources may soon be exhausted. The almost regular deterioration of water quality and, on the other hand, the increase in the qualitative and quantitative demands for water are conflicting forces, which must be adjusted by long-term water management planning also for the perspective future to make this very important mineral raw material, this carrier of transportation and this basis of energy production available to the development of our country. Environmental control has become a very fashionable and admittedly very important problem of healthy human life. It is a well-known fact that in the countries with developed industry, where elimination of the harmful effects of production was neglected, a definitely unhealthy and unwholesome environment has been created for the working people just for whom this production had developed. The other fact is that the protection of the quantity and of the quality of both surface and subsurface waters forms the most difficult and complex problem of environmental control. The importance of long-term water management planning in the field of environmental control is thus unquestionable. Furthermore, considering the example of the industrially more developed countries it is extremely urgent, if not belated already. Encouraging examples can also be seen as e.g. the uniform arrangement of the Tata nature conservation area. Long-term water management planning has to overcome a number of inherent difficulties. Such a difficulty is, for example, that the production of water has already become a complicated industrial process but, at the same time, the distribution of water to th'e consumers has remained a service in character. In the mind of water users it is considered natural that water of the required quantity and quality is available in any phase of the production process. In many cases — especially in municipal water supply — the price and value of water are unrelated, so that the beneficiary of the service does not appreciate the value received, nor the necessity of saving it. There are settlements in the country where the first cost of producing 1 cu.m of water exceeds thirty, or even forty Forints, still a charge only as low as iour Forints is paid by the population. Another ieature of long-term water management planning is that the predominant part of the total demand is the unconsumed effluent, the used water or wastewater returned polluting the resources still unused. As a remedial measure the suitable treatment oi used- and wastewaters is envisaged in the long-term plans. Unfortunately, according to the experiences either the funds available, or the efficiency of treatment are insufficient and the quality of returned effluent is invariably worse than that of the water diverted. In this field long-term water management planning intends to create a long-range conception, lirst oi all by elaborating regional plans for pollution control. Finally, in long-term water management planning the close interrelations between the different forms oi water resources must be remembered. This is the reason why water resources above, on, and under the surface must not be considered separately. Furthermore, it should be appreciated that water management cannot be coniined to particular areas, since in all cases, considering either suriace or subsuriace water resources, changes aifecting national, moreover, international water management conditions are obtained. Multipurpose water management planning has been developed where both the water resources and water demands, moreover, the possible ways oi meeting them are determined by a uniiorm technicaleconomic approach. Long-term water management planning is thus oi a significance superior to its counterparts in raw material and energy supply and is made the most complex and fundamental branch oi planning by the variety of uses and by its role played in environmental control. Besides the limited character of the water resources available, the continuous deterioration of their quality caused by uses within and outside the country, their fundamental effect on environment, industry and agriculture, further their importance in satisfying the demands oi population, any correct long-term water management planning is made especially difficult by the iact that the „water supply policy" must be adjusted to the principal products envisaged in the longand medium-term plans of industry and agriculture. This is why many sound long-term water management plans remain unrealized and only patching is made; in most cases the main projects, which produce no direct and immediate economic benefit but require great investments are omitted, that is, instead of the technically and economically soundest long-term solution, water management is forced to comply with momentary interests. As the value oi water is growing, as the resources oi good quality are decreasing and as required by the conservation oi the environment and the quality oi the existing resources as well as by the sudden increase of efficiency in the organization of pollution control, long-term planning of water management must be made more intensive, efficient and foreseeing, assuring both harmony between the population and industry and international cooperation. The long-term water management plans formulated in this way must be verified completely. These tasks cannot be realized, unless besides the experts of water management also the leaders of the national economy, the prominent personalities of the individual industrial branches and the agricultural experts working in perspective planning all appreciate and approve the long-term water management plans. In long-term water management planning the increase in volume is accompanied by a change in scope, in that such plans not only serve, but under certain circumstances indicate the direction of other economic planning. This stage has been reached and in his opening address József Vincze, deputy president,