Alajuela lake
| Alajuela lake | |||||
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| Coordinates | 9 ° 14 '0 " N , 79 ° 34' 48" W | ||||
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| Water surface | 50.2 km² | ||||
| Storage space | 651 million m³ | ||||
Lake Alajuela ( Spanish: Lago Alajuela , formerly Lago Madden ) is a reservoir in Panama .
It is 50.2 km² in size, is 76 m above sea level and has a capacity of 651 million m³. The lake, located northeast of the Panama Canal , was created in 1935 after the construction of the Madden Dam by damming the Río Chagres . The Alajuela Lake was planned as a water reservoir to operate the canal and to regulate the occasional torrential floods of the Río Chagres, but it is much more affected by siltation than the Gatunsee , which gradually reduces its storage capacity.
In addition, the lake in the Chagres National Park is a tourist recreation area and drinking water reservoir .
Lake Alajuela and the Madden Dam are under the administration of the Panama Canal Authority (Autoridad del Canal de Panamá [ACP]), as is the entire catchment area of the Río Chagres .
Madden Dam
The Madden Dam, which is about 16 km above Gamboa , is a gravity dam with a crown length of 274 m and a height of 67 m above the foundations. Its hydroelectric power station contains three Allis-Chalmers supplied 12 MW Francis turbines . The $ 10.6 million project was named after Martin B. Madden, who, as a member of the US House of Representatives and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, had significant influence on the financing of the project.
literature
Russell S. Harmon: The Rio Chagres, Panama: A Multidisciplinary Profile of a Tropical Watershed . 2005.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Article 316 of the Constitution of Panama
- ↑ Hydroelectric Plants in Panama ( Memento of the original from January 26, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
