Water Quality and Population Standpoints as Factors Influencing the Utilization for Agricultural Purposes of the Great Bačka Canal, Serbia

Abstract

© 2016, University of the Philippines Los Banos. All rights reserved. Great Backa Canal (GBC) is part of the canal system that connects two rivers, the Danube and the Tisza. It extends through Vojvodina (northern Serbia) and remains to be insufficiently exploited as an agricultural resource. With the aim of fostering agricultural development and sustainable management, the standpoints of the local population as regards the utilisation of the GBC for irrigation and drainage was analyzed. The presented results were obtained through theone-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the post hoc Scheffe’s test covering a sample of 500 interviewees from ten settlements. The results of the survey were compared tothe results of the GBC water quality as per control points (CP). The quality of the watercourses was determined using the Serbian Water Quality Index (SWQI) method. The results show that the GBC includes sections which are pure and entirely suitable to be used for irrigation and drainage (CP 1, 2, 3 and 5; SWQI >70 in most cases) and a section which is completely degraded and unusable (control point 4, SWQI <37 in most cases). The local population has a positive standpoint when it comes to the functions of irrigation and drainage, which differ depending on their place of residence. The residents of Vrbas stand out for their highly negative standpoints that correspond to the water quality results, which were noted to be extremely bad.