Flood protection, or the management of external waters, is achieved by improving the defense conditions on the watercourses that cross the state border, specifically those coming from Romania. These watercourses include the Zlatica, Begej, Tamiš, and others, which have embankments built along them and, before the construction of the Main Canals, faced serious problems with flood defense.
Now that the basic canal network has been constructed, the regime of high waters has improved positively, as these waters are accepted from the mentioned canalized watercourses and diverted further into the Tisa and Danube rivers through our canal systems and sluices.
In our area, besides Zlatica, the Kikinda Canal and part of the Main Canal also serve flood protection functions.
There are other functions of the basic canal network that will later find their place in canal operation.
Thus, the basic canal network of the Danube-Tisa-Danube (DTD) Hydrosystem has taken on the task of fundamental water regulation, enabling full development and utilization of all economic potentials.
The basic canal network consists of its structures, i.e., canals and hydro-objects, which include dams, sluices, weirs, pumps, and other smaller supporting facilities.
The OKM (Basic Canal Network) facilities in our area include:
- part of the Main Canal (Banatska Palanka – Novi Bečej canal),
- part of the Kikinda Canal, and
- the hydro junction in Novi Bečej, where large hydro-objects are located: the dam on the Tisa, the water intake sluice, and the canal weir.
More details about these facilities and the functions of the basic canal network will be discussed later.
Today, when embankments and canals have become a reality from once just a vision, and canals have evolved into a system with versatile purposes and capabilities — a system where water management is possible and its use is optimized for everyone in its environment — the long-standing aspirations of people in this region to live and create more safely and securely have been realized.
Hence, the idea of constructing the DTD Hydrosystem originated as a distant vision that has now become a reality. This vision was conceived and worked on by the system’s founder, engineer Nikola Mirkov, as well as by those who continued the work he began.
Nikola Mirkov, the visionary creator of the DTD Hydrosystem, pointed out the vast potential wealth of the former Pannonian Sea. He recognized that floods were a great evil and droughts even greater. His entire life was dedicated to fighting these adversities, fueled by immense optimism and faith in his ideas.
Vojvodina, with its distinctly continental climate and conditions where cold, moist currents from the Atlantic collide with hot, dry air from Africa, experiences a persistent and severe alternation of wet and dry years. Thus, one year the land requires irrigation, while the next year the excess water must be drained from the cultivated fields to prevent fatal damage to agriculture.
Statistically, out of 100 years in Vojvodina, 51 were dry, 32 brought troubles from floods, and only 17 years were favorable for agriculture.
Approximately 660,000 hectares of land, which had been permanently marshy over 200 years ago, were directly threatened by major external river waters. In addition to floods, underground and atmospheric precipitation waters (internal waters) sometimes cause even greater damage, threatening around 1.5 million hectares in Vojvodina.
Such extensive damages forced humans to take radical action to free themselves from dependence on the destructive power of water forces. Therefore, what nature had not done had to be accomplished by human hands: building embankments and canals, regulating and creating a river system that would both drain and irrigate, obey human control, and whose waters would no longer bring harm.
Realizing such a massive undertaking in water management required vast experience and knowledge, historical circumstances, and teams of experts formed over thirty years for this comprehensive idea.
Our efforts are also linked to the activity of the water management organization “Gornji Banat,” based in Kikinda, during the period from 1963 to 1995. Until 1978, the Basic Canal Network, with its working unit located in Novi Bečej, was part of this organization.
It is generally accepted that this was a period of expansion in all areas of water management, with large-scale construction and work over vast areas. The period from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s can be recorded in golden letters in the annals of water management.
During this period, all Tisa and Danube embankments were repaired, drainage was resolved by constructing powerful systems for evacuating excess water, and the basic canal network with large canals and hydro-objects was built.
Thus, the Danube-Tisa-Danube Hydrosystem was born.
In the past period, from 1963 to 1995, the directors of the Water Management Organization in Kikinda were: Milan Gavrić, MSc. Eng., Jovan Bubalo, LL.B., Stevan Micković, MSc. Eng., Stanoje Milošević, MSc. Eng., and Stevan Medarević, MSc. Eng.
Technical field staff included Vasa Popović, civil engineer, and technicians Dušan Aćimović, Ivan Vrebalov in Novi Bečej, as well as Svetozar Belić and Borislav Maćaš in Novi Miloševo.
Delegates in self-government bodies who selflessly supported the construction of the drainage system were: Radovan Popov, MSc. Eng., Stevan Neatnica, MSc. Eng. from Novi Miloševo, Jovan Kontrić, MSc. Eng. from Kumana, and others.
In the Melioration Community for the summer embankment “Ljutovo,” the work was managed by the Local Community of Novi Bečej, led by Mihajlo Peskar, while technical affairs were overseen by Vasa Popović, civil engineer.
The leadership of the administrative bodies included activists: Đura Vaščić, Veselin Marčićev, Branko Garčev, Obrad Koledin, and other respected farmers from Novi Bečej who owned land in that area.
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