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. Alentejo (pron. ... Guadiana (Latin Anas, Spanish Guadiana, Portuguese Guadiana) - one of the major rivers of Spain, part of it is the border with Portugal, ends in the Atlantic Ocean. ... Scrivener Dam, in Canberra, Australia, was engineered to withstand a once-in-5000-years flood event A dam is a barrier across flowing water that obstructs, directs or retards the flow, often creating a reservoir, lake or impoundment. ... Hydroelectric dam diagram The waters of Llyn Stwlan, the upper reservoir of the Ffestiniog Pumped-Storage Scheme in north Wales, can just be glimpsed on the right. ... High-altitude aerial view of irrigation in the Heart of the Sahara Irrigation (in agriculture) is the replacement or supplementation of rainfall with water from another source in order to grow crops. ... A tourist boat travels the River Seine in Paris, France Beaches make popular tourist resorts. ...

Alqueva is also a village that gives the dam project the name. Alqueva has about 350 inhabitants and there is also the biggest ostrich farm of 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 of the national and European context. Water scarcity in this region is one of the main debate and most important themes. Summer is a season, defined by convention in meteorology as the whole months of June, July, and August, in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. ... Main article: History of the European Union Attempts to unite the disparate nations of Europe precede the modern nation states; they have occurred repeatedly throughout the history of Europe. ...

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 again in the 1990s, during the Cavaco Silva and António Guterres governments. // Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the the baby boom from returning GIs who... Antonio Salazar on July 22, 1946 issue of Time Magazine Professor António de Oliveira Salazar (April 28, 1889—July 27, 1970) was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. ... The Carnation Revolution (Portuguese, Revolução dos Cravos) was an almost bloodless left-leaning revolution started on April 25, 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, that effectively changed the Portuguese regime from an authoritarian dictatorship to a liberal democracy at the end of a two-year process of a Left-wing military... The 1990s refers to the years 1990 to 1999; the last decade of the 20th Century. ... Aníbal António Cavaco Silva (born at Boliqueime in Loulé municipality in the Algarve region, on July 15, 1939) was Portugal from November 6, 1985 to October 28, 1995. ... António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres (b. ...

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.

External links

• http://www.alqueva.de/alquevaengl.html
• EDIA - Empresa de Desenvolvimento e Infra-Estruturas do Alqueva (State company responsible for the management of Alqueva system)