IWRA World Water Congress 2008 Montpellier France
4. Development of Water Resources and Infrastructure
Author(s): Andelka Belic
Sima Belic
Radovan
Savic
Andelka Belic(1), Sima Belic(1), Radovan Savic(1)
(1) University of Novi sad, Agricultural Faculty, Department for Water Management, 21000 Novi Sad, Trg
Dositeja Obradovica 8, Serbia
Telephone: ++381 21 4853259, Fax: ++381 21 455713, e-mail:
anbel@polj.ns.ac.yu
Article: PDFPoster: PDFAbstractThe Vojvodina´s unique position in respect of water resources is a direct
consequence of its geographic location on the central part of the Danube basin, with the largest concentration of
rivers and canals. This has means that control and management of the water resources has been a major condition
for survival of people living in this area. At first, the man’s aim was to protect himself against the water, but water
control has gradually played a greater role. This emerged in the management of the water for diverse purposes:
agriculture, industry, and water traffic. For all these activities and purposes water in Vojvodina is of vital importance
and of inestimable economic significance.
Vojvodina is distinguished by a relatively favorable climate, soil
and hydrological characteristics. In the recent decade, climate extremes have been registered, either in the air
temperature, amount of precipitation, or extreme hydrological occurrences manifested as the level and duration of
high/low water stages. However, Marjanov (1973) cited data reported by Rethly about a series of catastrophic wet
and dry years occurring in the past. Apparently, e.g. in the 15th century, the drought was such that one could wade
across the Danube. This indicates that climatic changes, or better to say, the sequences of favorable and unfavorable
distribution and amounts of precipitation, external and internal waters, are phenomena of a certain cyclic nature.
Owing to the circumstances, the last decade has been characterized by an irregular distribution of precipitation in the
course of a year, necessitating thus the intensification of some reclamation measures. Dry periods have imposed the
need for undertaking some complex measures with the aim of improving farming conditions, exceeding the scope of
conventional reclamation. With the aim of reducing the disproportion between the water requirements and its
available quantities, about 20 accumulations have been built in the region of Vojvodina in the course of the last 30
years. Before that, the Hydrological System Danube-Tisa-Danube (HS DTD) has been constructed with the
objective of making for the potential water shortage and collecting the excess or used waters.
In view of the fact
that the present level of pollution of natural resources has been to a significant extent due to economic reasons, the
procedures for dealing with the causes have to be sought in the same domain. The importance of reclamation in
organic agriculture is undoubtable and may be of crucial importance. This measure has to be adapted to the required
working conditions, first of all to plant production. In the reclamation measures with sustainable orientation an
approach different from the one that has been practised previously in shaping the canal network should be pursued
along with the water use and protection in the given region. It is necessary to point out that in a short time plant
production will have to switch to the organic - multifunctional approach. If this does not happen, the product will not
be suitable for export. In this change of the approach, reclamation measures, as the measures in service of
agriculture, will have a crucial role.