About Otmuchow Dam

The Otmuchów reservoir on the Nysa Kłodzka river in Lower Silesia holds 129.2 million cubic metres and was completed in 1933, making it one of Poland's oldest large reservoirs. The 25-metre earth embankment dam at Otmuchów in Opolskie province was built by the German regional authorities of Upper Silesia for flood control on the historically flood-prone Nysa Kłodzka. The reservoir works in tandem with the Nysa reservoir downstream, and together they regulate the Nysa Kłodzka river through the Opole region where devastating floods occurred repeatedly in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The 1997 millennium flood — the most severe in recorded Polish history — demonstrated the critical role of both reservoirs in mitigating peak flows, though even their combined retention capacity was overtopped by that exceptional event. Today Otmuchów also provides recreation: the reservoir shoreline near Otmuchów town has beaches, sailing infrastructure, and camping, making it one of the most popular summer destinations in Lower Silesia. The relatively warm, shallow bays on the reservoir's southern shore develop significant aquatic vegetation and support breeding great crested grebe and numerous surface-nesting ducks. The surrounding agricultural landscape of the Sudeten Foreland is characterised by fertile loess soils and mixed farming.