The Miguel Alemán Dam is on the

Tonto River The Tonto River is a river of Oaxaca, Mexico that flows from the mountains of Zongolica. It is dammed by the Miguel Alemán Dam near the town of Temascal or Nuevo Soyaltepec, forming the Miguel Alemán Lake. Below the dam, the river flows southeast ...

in the Papaloapan Region of

Oaxaca Oaxaca, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of the Mexico, United Mexican States. It is divided into municipalities of Oaxaca, 570 munici ...

state in southern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, just upstream from the town of Temascal, Oaxaca, forming the Miguel Alemán Lake with an area of 47,800 hectares. The dam operates in conjunction with the

Cerro de Oro Dam The Cerro de Oro Dam (), also called the Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado Dam, is on the Santo Domingo River (Oaxaca), Santo Domingo River in the San Juan Bautista Tuxtepec municipality of the Papaloapan Region, Oaxaca, Papaloapan Region of Oaxaca stat ...

, located on the Santo Domingo River to control floods in the

Papaloapan The Papaloapan River () is one of the main rivers of the Mexican state of Veracruz. Its name comes from the Nahuatl ''papaloapan'' meaning "river of the butterflies". In 1518 Juan de Grijalva's expedition spotted the river, naming it Río de Alvar ...

basin in

Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...

state. Together with the 22,000 hectare reservoir of the Cerro de Oro, which is joined by a channel to the Miguel Alemán Lake, the combined capacity is 13,380 million cubic metres. The lake formed by the dam is scenic, providing income from fishing and tourism. The northwestern shore and islands have been declared a nature reserve. The dam includes the Temascal hydroelectric plant.

Purpose

The Santo Domingo and the Tonto rivers join to the south of the city of San Juan Bautista Tuxtepec to form the Papaloapan river, which meanders northeastward to the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

. The basin of this river in the coastal plain was subject to frequent flooding, with the damage sometimes compounded by cyclones. A particularly severe flood in September 1944 covered 470,000 hectares, with great loss of life and property. The Miguel Aleman dam reduced the problem, although floods continued and the

on the Santo Domingo was required to fully control the floods.

Construction and capacity

The dam was initiated by the government of President

Miguel Alemán Valdés Miguel Alemán Valdés (; 29 September 1900 – 14 May 1983) was a Mexican politician who served a full term as the President of Mexico from 1946 to 1952, the first civilian president after a string of revolutionary generals. His administ ...

in 1947 and construction started in 1949. The dam was named for the president's father, Miguel Alemán González. The dam created a reservoir, provided a large portion of the region's growing electricity demand and provided an assured irrigation supply for thousands of new fruit, dairy, and vegetable farms. However, the project required relocation of thousands of poor Mazatec, Chinantec and Mixe families. There been a re-evaluation of the project's impact on the environment. Papaloapanrivermap

The dam has a capacity of 8 million m³ (2,113,400,000 US gallons), from which 6.77 million m³ (1,788,500,000 US gallons) is available for power generation. The dam has a length of . The Temascal hydroelectric plant located east of the dam generates about 725 million kilowatts a year.

References

* Cosby, Patrick H. "Leviathan in the Tropics: A postcolonial environmental history of the Papaloapan Development Projects in Mexico." PhD dissertation, University of Florida 2011. * Poleman, Thomas T. ''The Papaloapan project; agricultural development in the Mexican tropics''.Stanford, Calif., Stanford University Press, 1964. * Scherr, Sara J. ''Development and equity in tropical Mexico: Thirty years of the Papaloapan Project''. Ithaca, N. Y. : Department of Agricultural Economics, New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, 1983. {{DEFAULTSORT:Miguel Aleman Dam Dams in Mexico Buildings and structures in Oaxaca Dams completed in 1954

Purpose

Construction and capacity

References

Further reading