For Medical or Industrial Purposes? Issues of the Utilization of Thermal Waters in Southern Transdanubia in the Age of Socialism

Na lekárske alebo priemyselné účely? Problematika využívania termálnych vôd v južnom Zadunajsku vo veku socializmu

Tamás Nyári

In: Geografické informácie (Geographical Information), Ročník (Volume) 24, Číslo (Issue) 2, 2020, p. 257-269, ISSN 1337-9453

DOI: 10.17846/GI.2020.24.2.257-269

Abstract

At 26th of November 1957, the Political Comission of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (MSZMP Politikai Bizottság37) discussed the situation of the Hungarian oil industry. Later, the government decided to increase hydrocarbon exploration, to increase the production too. As a result, the number of test wells in the Southern Transdanubian region has increased significantly. However, in many cases thermal water was found during the research, which was essentially a by-product of hydrocarbon exploration. Today obvious to use hot springs for tourism or medical purposes, but in the 1960s this was not clear. Instead of tourism investments, they tried to use thermal water for agricultural purposes, for heating greenhouses. Similarly, hot water was used to heat homes and industrial facilities. At the middle of the 1960’s ages a plan was prepared, which intended to increase the using the thermal water this way. This plan was made by the Water Planning Company, and confirmed by the Government at 1965. However, spas appeared on at local level first, but the issue did not reach central government level until a decade later. In my treatise, I seek an answer to what economic, social and world political factors played a role in the issue of the construction of thermal and spa baths on the agenda of the Hungarian government and its impact on the bath culture of Southern Transdanubia. How they went from heating greenhouses to a treaty signed with the UN in 1974 and launching the Thermal Project.

Keywords: hydrocarbon, thermal water, spa, medical tourism, plan

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