1.     Geographical situation of the River Tisza

The river Tisza is the second longest river of Hungary and with respect to its length and catchment area, the longest Danube tributary. It is about 966 km long and from this total length about 160 km lies in the Ukraine and Romania and about 800 km in the Great Hungarian Plain (650 km in Hungary, 150 km in Yugoslavia). It has a catchment area of 157220 square kilometres and Hungary has 29,4% of that. The average water output of the river is 820 m /s at Szeged.   Tisza has its source in the snow-covered mountains of Máramaros in the Ukraine and divides into two branches (White- Tisza and Black- Tisza). It flows down the Máramaros-Basin, breaks through the volcanic ranges of the Carpathians. It comes round Nyírség with a typical sharp bend and flows down the deepest areas of the Great Hungarian Plain in a north-south direction. The river Tisza leaves Hungary at Szeged and it flows into the river Danube at Titel. Tributaries from the right side are rivers Tarac, Talabor, Nagyág, Borsava, Bodrog, Sajó, Eger, Zagyva and from the left are the rivers Visó, Iza, Túr, Szamos, Kraszna, Körös, Maros, Aranka and Béga.

2.     Climate

As for the climate of the Tisza-region, hot, droughty summers and cold winters are frequent there. The mean yearly temperature is an average of 10-11ºC and the autumn is typically bright and dry. The mean annual rainfall is not much, about 500mm. It has an outflow only when the snow melts, the water of summer showers is absorbed in the soil, so these areas have not got own running waters. However, there exist the so-called meander-lakes, backwater-parts in the cut bends fed by ground-water outside the dams and floods of the Tisza inside them.

3.     Flora and fauna

Rich marsh-forests, groves and fields were typical of the flora of this region, but we can find only their remains inside the dams; as poplars and willows have taken their place. Outside the dams the plough has conquered everything. There are treeless pastures on the wettest and alkaline soil areas.

The changes in the composition of the animal world were radical. The earlier colourful symbiosis of a thousand kinds has disappeared. Partly, because they have become extinct and partly, because they have changed their habitat as a consequence of the nature transformation works. The catchment area and its immediate vicinity are considered to be a favourable place for the remaining of the native species, although as a result of pollution, canalisation and lack of nourishment.

The most typical fish-species living in the liver Tisza are pikes, barbels, breams, carps, catfish, perches etc. The great variety of amphibia is typical of this area. The world of birds here is richer in species and more complex than in any other region of the Great Hungarian Plain. The most characteristic birds are great tits, blue tits, sparrows, starlings, pheasants, ducks, sand martins, kingfishers etc¼

The most typical creature in Tisza is called "tiszavirág" from which comes the expression 'ephemeral' that means 'short lived'. It is an insect and its state as a larva lasts for 3 years. These larvae live in small holes in the riverbed; the fully developed entities live only for some hours when they have their nuptials. Sometimes they swarm above the water surface, which is called Tisza-flowering from the Hungarian word 'tiszavirág'. Tiszavirág and its larva are important fish food.

4.     Its role in industry

At the very beginning fishing, good arable land and water-ways made people settle down the higher areas along the river Tisza. As far as the middle of the 1800s, the age of regulation of river-ways, there had not been any possibilities of another type of utilisation. As a result of the control the significance of water-ways has increased. Agriculture on the flood-controlled areas had the chance to develop undisturbedly.

Fishing will have a significant role in the future, too. The power of Tisza can be utilised by the building of water barrages, it can be used for irrigation, water supply and electric power production.

Nowadays the passenger boat traffic has been started again on the lower reaches of Tisza between Szeged and Csongrád and it also connects Szeged with Zenta in Serbia.

5.     Floods

The story of regulation of river-ways and that of flood-controls is inseparable from the story of floods. The development and progress of work is in connection with the floods, which occur repeatedly and often forced the threatened and sometimes ruined settlements to protect their areas by banking them up. It was the city of Szeged that suffered from floods in particular and was destroyed not only in 1879 but also in 1712. The biggest catastrophe of all times happened in the prospering city near the Tisza in the spring of 1879. The big flood of Szeged surpassed the memorable flood of 1838, which had destroyed most parts of Buda and Pest, both in proportion and in effect. It claimed almost 160 lives, destroyed 6000 houses and made 60000 people homeless, but at the same time it was a landmark in forming the townscape of revitalised Szeged, the flood-control of Tiszavölgy and what is more, the development of the whole flood-prevention system of Hungary. The biggest flood in the history of Tiszavölgy was in May, 1970.

6.     The cyanide poisoning

The cyanide spill, flowing inexorably downstream from Romania, reached the city of Szeged by the early hours of Friday, 11 February. The cyanide and heavy metal salts have had a catastrophic effect on wildlife in and around the River Tisza, its biosphere. Several hundred tonnes of dead fish were hauled out of the Tisza, but this was only the tip of  the iceberg. No accurate estimate can be given of the amount of smaller fish that had been swept away downstream. The entire ecosystem has been devastated by this catastrophe, from single-cell organisms. The Tisza's entire food chain has collapsed. Ever the small numbers have felt the effects of the cyanide.

The river is recovering but it is far from regaining its health. It will surely recover from the effects of poisoning, but this pollution two years ago can be considered as the last warning. People are capable of doing wonderful things, but they also can be gravediggers of nature and themselves.

7.The River Tisza in literature

Ottan némán, mozdulatlan álltam,

I stood there, silent, without stirring,

Mintha gyökeret vert volna lábam,

As if my feet were rooted to the spot,

Lelkem édes, mély mámorba szédült

My soul intoxicated by a sweet, profound ecstasy

A természet örök szépségétül.

Induced by nature's eternal beauty.

Óh természet, óh dicső természet!

Oh nature, oh glorious nature!

Mely nyelv merne versenyezni véled?

What language would dare compete with you?

Mily nagy vagy te! mentül inkább hallgatsz,

How splendid you are! the more you are silent,

Annál többet, annál szebbet mondasz.

The more you say, the more the beauty of your expression.

Petőfi Sándor,  A Tisza

Sándor Petőfi, The Tisza

The Tisza occupies a special place in our hearts, as a benevolent muse, inspiring great poets such as Petőfi, as the generous provider of livelihoods, as a source of wonder sweeping majestically across the Great Plain. The epithet "blond Tisza " springs to our minds as automatically as that of the "blue Danube" when we think of a river whose fate has been inextricably intertwined with that of the Hungarian nation, and is perceived as the most archetypically Hungarian of all rivers as a result (prior to the Treaty of Trianon, the Tisza was a purely Hungarian river). The Tisza has its place in folklore: according to one tale, God had created every mountain and river in the world, only the Tisza lingered in a state of deep melancholy by His footstool. Jesus intervened to sort out the problem. He obtained a golden plough, which he harnessed to a donkey, instructing the Tisza to follow in the furrows thus made. The donkey, however, was hungry, its erratic path dictated by the scattered patches of thistles which it greedily consumed. The meandering route followed by the donkey thus became the course of the Tisza.

7.     Personal experiences, memories

Our little village, Pátroha is not far from the Tisza, but fortunately it is not close enough to be threatened in case of floods. In the last years river flooded several times. Many settlements got under water and many people had to be removed from their home. We also had problems with ground-water but of course it did not cause such a big problem as it did for those people whose houses where standing in water. We followed the events on the TV every day and saw what had happened and what people had to experience. The flood swept away homes and many people fell victim to the river. The inhabitants of Pátroha took part in the rescue operation. Besides the floods, pollution has also caused several problems. It took a long time for the Tisza to recover and regain its health.

In this picture the children in Pátroha are cleaning their environment.

We would like people to pay attention to the River Tisza and understand that pollution can have incalculable consequences in the future. We try to do our best and together we can be able to do things that we have never dared to dream of. And remember: “We haven’t inherited the Earth from our grandparents but we borrowed it from our grandchildren.”

The project has been made by Katona Anita, Pázmán Zsanett, Tóth Ágnes and Vártás Éva, with the help of Lakatos Júlia and Juhász Ildikó, teachers of Informatics and English.

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