What was the purpose of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) ?

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was established by
Congress, at the request of President Franklin Roosevelt, for the purpose of
facilitating economic development across much of the American South.  Conceptualized as
a key component of Roosevelt’s New Deal designed to help the nation recover from the
economic ravages of the Great Depression, the TVA was formally established in 1933 with
the mission, as its own website states, “to address a wide range of environmental,
economic and technical issues, including the delivery of low-cost electricity and
management of natural resources.”  By developing and managing a system of waterways and
dams throughout the region (which encompassed Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina,
Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Georgia), a section of the country economically
underdeveloped during the best of times would have a better chance at economic
development.  The dams and the development of a system of manage waterways would provide
low-cost electricity and enable more efficient agricultural practices, all of which
remains a core mission of the TVA today.  In addition to the long-term benefits
associated with the TVA, the construction projects funded by the federal government to
build the new dams and to integrate the rivers and canals that cross the region were
intended to provide thousands of jobs at a time when unemployment was obviously one of
the country’s biggest problems.