Mantasoa Dam is a

buttress dam A buttress dam or hollow dam is a dam with a solid, water-tight upstream side that is supported at intervals on the downstream side by a series of buttresses A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which ...

on the Varahina-North River, a tributary of the

Ikopa River The Ikopa River is the second longest waterway in Madagascar and passes through the capital, Antananarivo. It is the largest tributary of the Betsiboka River. It is formed by the Varahina-North and Varahina-South Rivers. Its spring, named Varah ...

, near

Mantasoa Mantasoa is a municipality in Madagascar. It belongs to the district of Manjakandriana, which is a part of Analamanga Region. The population of the municipality was 10,604 in 2018. Mantasoa is located at 68 km East of Antananarivo. 60 villages in ...

in the

Analamanga Region Analamanga is a region in central Madagascar, containing the capital Antananarivo and its surrounding metropolitan area. The region has an area of , and had a population of 4,325,226 in 2018. Administrative divisions Analamanga Region is divided i ...

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

. The dam was constructed by French contractors between 1937 and 1938. It creates

Lake Mantasoa Lake Mantasoa is a large artificial lake with a surface area of , created by the Mantasoa Dam on the Varahina river (an affluent of the Ikopa) in the municipality of Mantasoa, Analamanga region of Madagascar. It provides immediate irrigation fo ...

which has a surface area of . The dam itself is made of of concrete and has a reinforced

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...

design. Water released from the dam supplies a regulated flow to

hydroelectric 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 ...

power station at the Antelomita Dams downstream. A saddle dam on the north side of the Mantosoa reservoir regulates water flow into the Mandraka River for the Mandraka Dam downstream.

References

{{reflist Dams in Madagascar Analamanga Buttress dams Dams completed in 1938 20th-century architecture in Madagascar

See also

References