Data on the activities of the Mária and Hodos Stream Valley Water Use Association (1904-1912)

Abstract

In the hilly section of the Kraszna river, a left tributary of the Upper Tisza, in the decades before World War I, several smaller water companies were formed with the cooperation of the owners of the affected villages, mainly to carry out stream bed regulation and drainage works. According to the water literature, such a water company was established in the valley of the Mária and Boldád streams in 1894, with Krasznabéltek (Beltiug) as its headquarters. However, there was no information in the literature that, in the neighborhood of this company, in the section of the Mária stream above the village of Szakasz (Rătești) and in the lower part of the Hodos stream, the interests of Nagyszokond (Socond), Krasznasándorfalva (Șandra), Oláhgyűrűs (Gerăușa) and Béltekhodos (Hodișa) also initiated the establishment of another water company from 1904. In 1906, the Debrecen Hungarian Royal Office of Cultural Engineering prepared the plan for river bed cleaning. Based on the submitted application and official decision, on October 3, 1907, the Ministry of Agriculture took note of the 285 acres area, becoming Mária and Hodos Stream Valley Water Company. For the company based in Nagyszokond, the final decision of May 11, 1910, of the deputy mayor of Szatmár county, gave preliminary permission to start the works. In December 1910, the official decision containing the final water rights license was completed, with detailed technical data of the water works. The troupe presumably ended its operations during World War I.