Dospat Reservoir () is situated in the western part of the

Rhodope Mountains The Rhodopes (; , ; , ''Rodopi''; ) are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, and the largest by area in Bulgaria, with over 83% of its area in the southern part of the country and the remainder in Greece. Golyam Perelik is its highest peak ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. The reservoir (formed by a

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

in the town of

Dospat Dospat () is a town in the very south of Bulgaria, part of Smolyan Province, situated in the Rhodope Mountains, close to Dospat Dam. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Dospat Municipality. As of December 2010, the town had a popul ...

, west of

Smolyan Smolyan () is a List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, town and ski resort in the south of Bulgaria near the border with Greece. It is the administrative and industrial centre of the Smolyan Province. The town is built along the narrow valley of t ...

) stretches nearly northwest to the city of Sarnitsa. At above the sea level, it is one of the highest dams in Bulgaria in terms of altitude, and, with its of water area, the second largest in capacity. It is fed by the Dospat River. The dam, which creates the lake, is built for hydroelectricity generation as part of the

Dospat–Vacha Hydropower Cascade The Dospat–Vacha Hydroelectric Cascade () is situated in the western Rhodope Mountains of southern Bulgaria, on the territory of the Smolyan Province, Smolyan, Pazardzhik Province, Pazardzhik and Plovdiv Provinces. It is owned by the NEK EAD, Na ...

(500.2 MW). There is no

hydroelectric power plant Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

(HPP) installed at the dam but rather the water is taken to the Teshel HPP and then further down the Devin HPP and the

Vacha River The Vacha () is a river in southern Bulgaria, a right tributary of the river Maritsa. The 112 km long Vacha is the 23rd longest river of Bulgaria and the second longest in the Rhodope Mountains, following the Arda (272 km), another major ...

with its power plants, dams and reservoirs ( Tsankov Kamak HPP,

Vacha Reservoir Vacha Reservoir ( Yazovir Vacha; before 1999: Antonivanovtsi Reservoir) is a body of water associated with a dam in Devin Municipality, south Bulgaria. It is part of the Dospat–Vacha Hydropower Cascade (500.2 MW) involving four more dams a ...

, Krichim Reservoir, Vacha II HPP, Krichim HPP and Vacha I HPP). Besides that, a minimum of is constantly released for sanitation of the Dospat River

riverbed A streambed or stream bed is the bottom of a stream or river and is confined within a Stream channel, channel or the Bank (geography), banks of the waterway. Usually, the bed does not contain terrestrial (land) vegetation and instead supports d ...

where the average input to the reservoir is . The flora and fauna around the reservoir are diverse and the geography offers breathtaking sights. Old coniferous forests surround the lake. On the northern bank, the town of Sarnitsa and Krushata neighborhood are located. The terrain is hilly, with meadows and arable land available, used for grazing, potato growing and other agricultural activities. Parallel to the south bank are steep slopes covered in spruce and this bank is where most holiday cabins and hotels are located. The reservoir is rich in fish. It is stocked with

perch Perch is a common name for freshwater fish from the genus ''Perca'', which belongs to the family Percidae of the large order Perciformes. The name comes from , meaning the type species of this genus, the European perch (''P. fluviatilis'') ...

, trout (

rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black. In the ...

, brook),

carp The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...

European chub ''Squalius cephalus'', the common chub, European chub or simply chub, is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, the daces, Eurasian minnows and related fishes. This species is found in Europe where it freq ...

common rudd The common rudd (''Scardinius erythrophthalmus'') is a benthos, bentho-pelagic freshwater Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish belonging to the Family (biology), family Leuciscidae. This species is widely spread in Europe and central Asia, around the ...

common roach The roach, or rutilus roach (''Rutilus rutilus''), also known as the common roach, is a fresh- and brackish-water fish of the family Cyprinidae, native to most of Europe and western Asia. Fish called roach can be any species of the genera ''Rut ...

pumpkinseed The pumpkinseed (''Lepomis gibbosus''), also referred to as sun perch, pond perch, common sunfish, punkie, sunfish, sunny, and kivver, is a small to medium–sized freshwater fish of the genus ''Lepomis'' (true sunfishes), from the sunfish fami ...

wels catfish The wels catfish ( or ; ''Silurus glanis''), also called sheatfish or just wels, is a large species of catfish native to wide areas of central, southern, and eastern Europe, in the basins of the Baltic, Black and Caspian Seas. It has been intro ...

, Danube Bleak and various members of ''

Carassius ''Carassius '' is a genus in the ray-finned fish family Cyprinidae. Most species in this genus are commonly known as '' crucian carps'', though that term often refers specifically to '' C. carassius''. The most well known species is the goldfish ...

''. Trout are reared in cages within the reservoir. Most types of

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

are practiced: spinning with

lures Loures () is a village on the island of Crete in Greece, located in the municipality of Gortyn (until 2011 in the municipality of Kofinas) of Heraklion regional unit, at the northern edge of the Messara Plain. It is by road south of Heraklion cit ...

fly fishing Fly fishing is an angling technique that uses an ultra-lightweight lure called an artificial fly, which typically mimics small invertebrates such as flying and aquatic insects to attract and catch fish. Because the mass of the fly lure is in ...

, and others. In the surrounding areas there are a number of other large dams, including Vacha, Golyam Beglik,

Batak Batak is a collective term used to identify a number of closely related Austronesian peoples, Austronesian ethnic groups predominantly found in North Sumatra, Indonesia, who speak Batak languages. The term is used to include the Karo people ( ...

and Shiroka Polyana. The area offers great opportunities for recreation and tourism. Accessibility is, however, rather poor. Four main mountain roads link the reservoir to the rest of the world. One from

, a second from

Velingrad Velingrad ( ) is a town in Pazardzhik Province, Southern Bulgaria, located at the western end of Chepino Valley, part of the Rhodope Mountains. It is the administrative center of the homonymous Velingrad Municipality and one of the most po ...

to Sarnitsa, a third from Devin and a fourth from

Gotse Delchev Georgi Nikolov Delchev (; ; 4 February 1872 – 4 May 1903), known as Gotse Delchev or Goce Delčev (''Гоце Делчев''),Originally spelled in older Bulgarian orthography as ''Гоце Дѣлчевъ''. - Гоце Дѣлчевъ. ...

to the town of Dospat. The one from

allows accessibility to some of the other Rhodope dams along its length. It forks into two roads; one leading to the town of Dospat and the other to Sarnitsa. This road to Sarnitsa is in places very rutted and may prove a challenge to navigate. Along the south bank there runs a rough dirt track from Sarnitsa to Dospat but this is only used to access the holiday spots.

Gallery

File:Dospat Dam Iz3.JPG File:Dospat Reservoir 2.jpg File:Родопи – Западни - ЗЗ по директивата за местообитанията – ZZ1030 – Доспат - No2.jpg File:Sarnitsa1.JPG

External links

Pictures from the Rhodopes and Dospat dam

Photos of Dospat on TrekEarth
{{Vacha dams Reservoirs in Bulgaria Landforms of Smolyan Province Landforms of Pazardzhik Province Rhodope Mountains Chech Tourist attractions in Smolyan Province Tourist attractions in Pazardzhik Province

Gallery

See also

External links