The Tennessee Valley Authority

The Tennessee Valley Authority was entablished on May 18, 1933 by President Franklin Roosevelt. USA was going through severe economic dpression during that period. The President formulated several programs to lift the country out of this depression. These programs were collectively known as the New Deal. Apart from providing employment to people all over the country, the Tennessee Valley Authority provided much needed succor to the inhabitants of the Tennessee Valley by bringing electricity and irrigation facility to the area.

The area known as the Tennessee Valley is the area directly around the Tennessee River, so the Authority worked to harness the natural energy of the river in order to provide the area with power. Like much of the country in the midst of the Depression, residents did not have electricity running to their homes and businesses, so the project would work to better the area and provide the much needed power.

The residents of Tennessee Valley were quite poor and even referred to as the "Forgotten Americans". No wonder electricity was lacking in the valley. Roosevelt’s TVA rectified this notion by remembering these forgotten individuals and helping them in rebuilding the area. After the TVA brought electricity to the valley’s residents, the once forgotten Americans began to grow financially strong and their average incomes increased considerably.

In addition to harnessing the river’s massive power and turning it into electricity, the TVA worked to control the river itself. On an annual basis, the Tennessee River would flood, thus ravaging the land and the towns that rest in the river’s destructive path. Residents would suffer from ruined crops and destroyed houses after the river breeched its banks and came tearing into the valley. The TVA worked to create dams in an effort to control the river and stop this devastating flooding.

The control of flood also gave rise to the avenues of irrigation. During depression the farmers suffered a lot due to the lack of water and resulting crop failures. This lead them to sink deeper and deeper into debts. The farmers till then followed the old methods of irrigation inherited from their ancestors. The new agricultural irrigation techniques however soon caught their fancy.

Before the TVA developed the system of dams in the valley, the river was quite difficult for boat captains to navigate. After the projects were completed, the river navigation was made a good bit easier, allowing the area to become more widely traveled, therefore bringing more money into the Tennessee Valley.

There were many beneficial natural effects of the Tennessee Valley Authority also. The project helped in controlling and preventing forest fires. The workers replanted trees to rebuild the forest that had been cleared for various reasons. Thus wildlife was encouraged to converge in the newly minted forests, just as fish had been encouraged to populate the new bodies of water after the construction of dams.

The timing of Tennessee Valley Authority was crucial in this country’s history. It not only provided jobs to thousands of Americans who were unemployed at the time, but improved the life for the residents of the Tennessee Valley.

By: Grace Pallin

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