Vízügyi Közlemények, 1973 (55. évfolyam)
4. füzet - Rövidebb közlemények és beszámolók
the downstream Csongrád Barrage and the Danube —Tisza Canal. The construction of the reservoir is accompanied by the relocation and modernization of several road sections. The new opportunities in the reservoir area contribute to the accelerated elimination of isolated farms, to the development of new settlements and farm centers, to the improvement of communal water supply and sewerage. As an additional benefit, the reservoir embankments offer a higher degree of safety against inundation by floods. The recreation opportunities along the 40 km long artificial water surface will bring about fundamental changes in the life of the population of the Tisza Valley, since bathing will become available to about 50 thousand people. Under the recreation development programme facilities will be created for boating, water sports and angling. The regional recreation development plans envisage 3 to 4 five-year plan periods until complete development can be achieved. In this way, in the perspective of a few decades the economicogeographic transformation of the central part of the Tisza Valley becomes a reality, founded on a new water development project. 1.3 Mátrai, I.: Barrages on the Tisza River (For the Hungarian text, see pp. 49) The barrage on the Tisza River are the key projects of water management developments extending to large areas and constructed in successive stages in response to the arising demands. The first of these, the Tiszalök Barrage and the Eastern Main Canal (Fig. 1.3 — 1) have been in operation since 1954. In the catchment area of the Tisza River meteorological conditions are highly variable consequently the river regime is flashy in character. As an example it is of interest to note that whereas in the wet year of 1941 the runoff volume was 22 thousand million cu.m, in the dry year of 1950 no more than 2.9 thousand million cu.m were conveyed in the river. In the Hungarian part of the catchment (which extends to the territory of five countries) the greatest water consumer is agriculture. The total area where irrigation is potentially possible amounts to 1.2 to 2.0 million hectares. The natural supplies must then be augmented by importing water from the Danube Valley. The only economical means of procuring irrigation water consists of the construction of river barreges which serve simultaneously the purposes of water transportation, domestic and industrial water supply, the production of hydroelectric energy, groundwater control and recreation. For meeting the demand for water in the Tisza Valley, several alternatives have been considered but none of them has been found suited alone to overcome the deficiencies. Guaranteed water supply in the Tisza Valley can only be solved by the combination of valley and plain-land 266
