Fejér László: Árvizek és belvizek szorításában (Vízügyi Történeti Füzetek 15. Budapest, 1997)

Idegennyelvű összefoglalók

former territory. Whereas virtually the entire Carpathian Basin was formerly Hungarian territory, after the war 96% of the streamflow in the rivers arrived from beyond the borders. The country has thus become a downstream country. Besides a number of other problems this had grave consequences on the flood situation as well. Political relations with the neighbouring countries were strained, which has introduced problems in flood forecasting, neglect of the interests of the downstream country, etc. The flood control associations had to face new problems. In a number of places dikes had to be built along the frontier, to prevent levee breaches beyond the border from inundating the protected flood plains in Hungary. During the economic crisis of the 1920s allocations from the state budget were necessarily meagre to alleviate the financial burdens on the landowners. In this period efforts were concentrated on expanding and improving the land drainage network, though progress was slow because of the shortage of funds and to the almost 15 years long dry spell, which started in the second half of the 1920s. As a consequence thereof attention turned gradually to irrigation farming. The sequence of abnormally wet years in the early 1940s revealed the weaknesses of the Hungarian flood control and land drainage systems. The flood defences proved generally satisfactory (disregarding a few levee breaches on the Danube), but the drainage canals and the pumping stations connected thereto were unable to cope with the huge water masses, leading to a national disaster in 1941-42. Without state support the water associations could not perform their public functions. Nationalisation was considered, but was postponed on account of World War II. The political upheaval in the aftermath of the war, the splitting up of the large estates combined with the restoration of the war damages has uprooted the flood control system based on financing by the associations. The new small farmers to whom land was allocated were unable to pay the flood control tax (flood plain contribution) imposed on them. Moreover, the associations were obliged to repair the defences damaged during the war. Without substantial state support these could not have continued functioning. Having realised their untenable situation, the associations themselves established the first national organisation, which was soon disbanded by the communist regime as politically unreliable. The levee failures and inundations of 1948 in the Tisza Valley have eventually prompted the communist government to declare all water affairs, including water management and loss control, functions of the state and to establish the National Water Authority.