Alqueva

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The Alqueva is a site in the Alentejo region, in Portugal, where a huge project in the Guadiana river intended to create a complex infrastructure, which includes a dam, hydroelectric power production, irrigation systems to a large arable land area, and formation of an extensive reservoir, forming a lake where several tourist ventures are to be found.

Alqueva is also a village that gives the dam project the name. Alqueva has about 350 inhabitants and is also the site of the biggest ostrich farm in Portugal.

Alentejo is the driest and hottest region in Portugal. Problems with lack of rain are drastic in some years, and also with heat, particularly in Summer season. The climate and the low development of structures create serious problems to this region, which became isolated from the national and European context. Water scarcity in this region is one of the main debate and most important themes.

In the 1950s, the Portuguese head of government Salazar ordered the studies of this project, which was started after the carnation revolution of 1974, to be suspended and abandoned in 1978. The potential benefits of the Alqueva dam were discussed for decades. The complex of the Alqueva Dam was projected to bring a solution to this problem and was supposed to create the biggest artificial lake in Europe. The Portuguese government eventually made the decision to build it in the 1990s, during the Cavaco Silva and António Guterres governments.

Aldeia da Luz, a small village, fell into the flooding zone of the projected Alqueva dam and was completely rebuilt on a safe new site.

On February 8th 2002, the 96-metre-high floodgates of the Alqueva dam were closed and the reservoir started to fill.