About Santa Clara Dam

Santa Clara dam sits on the river Mira in the southwestern Alentejo region of Portugal, near the town of Santa Clara-a-Velha. Completed in 1969, the double-curvature arch dam is 82 metres tall and holds 485 million cubic metres. The reservoir serves primarily for irrigation of the fertile agricultural lands of the Mira basin and public water supply for communities in the western Algarve and southern Alentejo. The dam is located in one of Portugal's least densely populated areas, surrounded by cork oak forests and rolling countryside. The reservoir also supports the Mira irrigation scheme, which enables farming in an otherwise semi-arid landscape. Its waters feed into channels that extend southward toward the Algarve coast.