Virág Árpád: A Sió és a Balaton közös története. 1055–2005 (KÖZDOK Kft., Budapest, 2005)
The common history of Lake Balaton and the Sió Canal (1055–2005)
THE COMMON HISTORY OF LAKE BALATON AND THE SIO CANAL (1055-2005) 525 drop of the lake waterlevel is thus attributable to these two factors. Parallel thereto, the chemical and biological parameters of the lake water have improved conspicuously. The loss of several 100 million cubic metres of storage since 2000 and the extremely low lake levels in 2003 have revived the 100 years old demand of importing water from an adjacent catchment. Of the alternatives examined in 1908-1910, diversion from the River Mura was considered feasible. The growing water demands prognosticised in the Balaton catchment have prompted such transfer studies from several rivers, like the Drava, the Rába and the Danube in 1968-70. Arguments of hydrobiologists in 1972-1975 have convinced the professionals that water of ,,non-carst type” must not be transferred to Lake Balaton. Hydrologists of the State Water Agency have arrived in 1989 after lengthy studies at the conclusion that no transfer will become necessary in the foreseeable future. The committee set up on this issue by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has found water scarcity to be a short-lived phenomenon, and water transfer from an adjacent catchment to involve considerable environmental risks. The wet first four months of 2005 have verified the correctness of these conclusions. Sail powered barges have plied the 600 km2 large water surface from early times. The first steamboat was launched in 1846 and has started regular passenger services and freight transport. On the very shallow southern shore the harbours were built by dredging. Navigation on the Sió Canal between Lake Balaton and Simontomya was started 20 years later, once the channel was cleared and the lock at the Siófok headworks was completed. Evidently, the canal was open for boats at times of water releases only. Completion of the Siófok shiplock in 1947 gave a new impetus to navigation, in that it allowed passage of 1200 ton vessels from the lake to the Danube and vice versa (when enough water was released). Pleasure sailing was introduced parallel to the passenger services on the lake. The first yacht club was founded in 1847, at Balatonfüred, their number (and that of the various sailcrafts) growing steadily once the water level was stabilised and the Sió Canal improved. Owners of lake-shore properties and landowners in the Sió Valley were the first to demand level control early in the 19th century, with the aim of protecting their summer homes and of draining the marshes. This demand went unheeded, until the railway line built along the southern shore has voiced similar interests in 1863. The first two Sió sluices have already allowed an extent of level control, which left a fairly wide strip on the sandy southern lakeshore permanently dry. This was then converted into beaches eminently suited to bathing in summer. Realising the opportunity offered, the first summer recreation resort was built from 1890 to 1893 at Siófok. During the next two decades recreation resorts including private summer homes, hotels, restaurants and beach baths mushroomed all along the southern shore and on the northern shore sections suited to such development. The trend was attenuated in the aftermath of the two world wars but recovered vigorously after 1960. Harbours, ports, landings, marinas, shorewalls, roads and other infrastructural facilties were established at the same rate then improved continuously. Lake Balaton recreation area has developed over the recent decades into one of the major national assets and tourist attractions in Hungary, so that the philosophy underlying lake level control and Sió canalisation have been changed accordingly to serve the overriding interests related thereto. Accordingly, at rising lake levels the resorts are protected against flooding, while during spells of scarce supply water is stored in the bed.
