Vízügyi Közlemények, 1964 (46. évfolyam)

4. füzet - IV. Perényi Károly: Héjcsatornák az öntözésben

(?) WATER MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT, INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND DOMESTIC USE By I. Dégen, Civ. Eng. Head of the Hungarian National Water Authority (For the Hungarian text see pp. 5) I. The development of water supply and canalization. In earlier decades the water demand of settlements and the industry could be satisfied from local resources, and sewage could be discharged without any treatment into a natural recipient. In the post-war years the demands exceeded the local resources. At the same time the practice of discharging large quantities of the untreated wastes produced into surface waters resulted in the impermissible pollution thereof. Water works and sewage treatment systems began then to loose gradually their former exclusively communal character. Some of the characteristic features of this development can be summarized as follows: Hungary with an area of 93,000 sq.km is populated by round 10 million inhabitants. 36 per cent of the population is supplied by ^central, or midget water works. By 1965 the supply service will be extended to 45 per cent, and by 1980 to 74 per cent. About 8,5 per cent of the village population is now supplied from water works, and this figure will be increased to 14 per cent by 1965, and to 40 per cent by 1980. Since the war 17 new communal and 55 rural water works have been built, while the number of midget water works in smaller settlements is in excess of 300. Industrial and domestic consumption rose from 900 million cu.m in 1940 to about 2 billion cu.m, of which 550 million cu.m annually are domestic consumption, corresponding to a more than threefold increase over the 1940 figure. 22 per cent of the population lives on an area provided with canalization and sewage treatment. This figure will be increased to 26 per cent by 1965, and to 55 per cent by 1980. The governmental decree passed in 1961 on the purity of waters created the prerequisites for the solution of the sewage and wastes treatment problem. A balanced harmony between settlement and the development of water supply and sewerage was realized for the first time by the large scale settlement building program. The overall water resources development plan for the entire country was prepared in this period, marking a cornerstone in the history of the conscious, scientifically founded development of Hungarian water policy. In spite of the results attained, industrial and domestic water policy failed to keep pace with the development of the national economy as a whole. As a result of a significant error in the'development of municipal water supply the total production of the water works grew by 80 per cent, but the quantity of water delivered for domestic purposes increased by 20 to 25 per cent only. Water saving production technologies are not commonly utilized especially in the industries consuming large water quantities. II. Relationship between regional resources development and plant water policy. The problems of water resources management cannot be solved correctly, unless a uniform approach is adopted to the resources development of large areas and the internal water policy of individual industrial plants. The processes by which water is reclaimed from Nature, used in accordance with social demands and returned without harmful effects are of fundamental significance. The criteria for planning the regional water resources development of a larger area, for constructing and operating the system, are controlled primarily by the spatial relationship between the production facilities and the water resources "(the hydrological and hydrogeological conditions of supply), as well as by"the production processes of resources management mechanical, chemical and biological processes of production, processing of water, drainage and treatment of sewage). The production processes of resources management are akin in character to the extractive and processing industries. The large water producing and processing plants may well be referred to as "water factories", while the water works exploiting underground resources as "water mines". In Hungary the Borsod Regional Water Supply System, which is almost completed