About Vacha Dam

Vacha Reservoir occupies a dramatic gorge on the Vacha River in the western Rhodope Mountains of southern Bulgaria, near the town of Krichim in Plovdiv Province. Completed in 1974, the dam stands 141 metres high — one of the tallest dams in Bulgaria — and has a storage capacity of 226.1 MCM. Vacha is the centrepiece of one of Bulgaria's most important hydropower cascades, which includes the Dospat, Tsankov Kamak, and Vacha reservoirs linked by a system of tunnels and underground power stations. The Vacha hydropower station exploits the significant head between the reservoir surface and the Thracian Plain below, generating substantial quantities of renewable electricity. The reservoir also serves as the primary water supply source for the city of Plovdiv — Bulgaria's second largest city with approximately 350,000 residents — via the Vacha-Plovdiv aqueduct. Water from Vacha is also used for irrigation in the upper Maritsa valley. The gorge setting gives Vacha a striking visual character; the steep, forested canyon walls plunge hundreds of metres to the water surface below. The western Rhodope climate delivers high annual precipitation exceeding 900 mm, and the reservoir benefits from a reliable snowmelt recharge each spring from the adjacent high Rhodope plateaux.