Rialb Reservoir

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Rialb reservoir lies beneath Tiurana, bounded by the mountains of Peramola, Oliana, Bassella, Baronia del Rialb, Ponts and Tiurana itself. Fed by the River Segre, the Rialb, which gives it its name, and the Ribera Salada and surrounded by beautiful forests climbing the slopes of the hills and mountains, where you can see various hermitages and farmhouses, all of them very old, it forms a magnificent natural landscape.

Rialb dam is 99 metres high and construction began in 1992, a few kilometres downstream from Oliana dam.  Opened in 2000, the reservoir has a capacity of 403 hm3, making it the second largest reservoir in Catalonia, supplying more than 80 population centres via the Segarra-Garrigues Canal and the Urgell Canal.
The reservoir is managed by the Ebre Hydrographic Confederation.
The construction of the dam, plans for which go back to the sixties, was difficult to carry out and was postponed for thirty years for various reasons. The tenacious opposition to eviction and moving mounted by some or all of the inhabitants of the affected municipalities (a total of about 300 people) and their associated villages (Miralpeix for Tiurana and Castellnou de Bassella, la Clua d'Aguilar i Aguilar for Bassella), had a great deal to do with the delay, together with the likely disappearance under the water of the lowest-lying, most fertile land. The construction of a hydroelectric power station is also planned, together with an additional dam in the Oliana, Peramola and Bassella sector, where the construction of a leisure and sports area is planned at the tail end of the Rialb reservoir. This would provide the zone with a permanent area of water.
Rialb reservoir is becoming a fantastic place known for its beauty. Its surroundings also allow you to enjoy adventure sports, such as canoeing, rafting, ravining or fishing. For all these reasons and more, a visit to the area with family or friends is an unbeatable way of relaxing or burning off adrenalin.

If you want to see the reservoir from different points and municipalities, it is skirted by a perimeter road and path. In some sections this allows you to observe its grandiose construction and admire the tremendous beauty of nature in its pure state.