Ballester dam

The Engineer Ballester Dam is a work built on the Neuquén River, north of the Argentine Patagonia, between the provinces of Neuquén and Río Negro. The purpose of this work was to give birth to the integral system of irrigation of the Upper Valley of the Black River and Lower Valley of the Neuquén River and to attenuate the floods of the Neuquén River, thus allowing the advance of the urbanization and the agricultural production on the natural plains of the valley .

The localities closest to the dike are: on the Neuquén side, Vista Alegre Norte, and Río Negro, Barda del Medio. It was built in the second decade of the twentieth century, and originates from it:

  *   the main irrigation canal, 130 km long, which has the capacity to irrigate 60,000 ha, but currently less than 50,000 hectares, located between Barda del Medio and Chichinales;
  *   and the diversion channel that, in flood situations of the river, evacuates surplus water to the Vidal basin (Pellegrini Lake).