Lac de Péligre (English: "Lake of Danger") is the second a body of water of water in the Republic of Haiti, after that of Étang Saumâtre. Located in the Centre Department, It is part of the renewable energy system for Haiti maintained by the Electricité d'Haiti (EDH).
It is located in central Haiti, northwest of Las Cahobas. It has an maximum depth of 174 meters (570 feet) and an area of almost 48 square kilometers (19 mi2). Water from the lake flows to several other rivers such as the Artibonite, Thomonde, Onde Verde, Grann Roche, and Lascahobas.
About[]
It is an artificial lake created in 1957 following the construction of the Péligre Hydroelectric Dam on the Artibonite River. This dam was built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and financed by the American import-export bank, Eximbank.
The color of the water is green due to the strong development of plankton in the lake. This color also indicates that the lake is very fertile, as it is the result of the organic matter that enters with the sedimentation that occurs at the mouths of the rivers in the lake. This phenomenon allows the development of aquatic fauna which finds abundant food there and contributes at the same time to the development of fishing.
The water level in the lake is highly variable with a fluctuation of 22 meters (72 feet). During the months of February, March, and April (dry season), the level of the lake is very low with a minimum depth measured at the level of the dam, of 150 meters (500 feet). During the months of October, November, and December, the maximum depth is 172 meters (565 feet), measured at the same place. These fluctuations at lake level cause the area to vary from 3,200 to 6,400 hectares depending on the season, with an average of 4,800 hectares.
According to Paul Farmer, the flooding of these fertile valleys in the 1950s plunged many Haitians into misery and bears a heavy responsibility for the spread of the AIDS epidemic in Haiti.
History[]
It was created as a result of the construction of the Peligre Hydroelectric Dam on the Artibonite River in 1956–1957. The project was designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and financed by the Export-Import Bank of the United States. According to Tracy Kidder's book Mountains Beyond Mountains, Brown & Root was a contractor in the Péligre Dam project.
There is a lot of controversy surrounding the dam. Much of the benefit of the dam's construction has gone to a small group of wealthy individuals, at the expense of the poor farmers who utilized much of the land that is now submerged. The extreme poverty those displaced families have faced has largely been untold, but is often mentioned in the talks of Dr. Paul Farmer; "if you saw with peasant eyes, the scene looked violent and ugly, a lake that had buried the good farmland and ravaged the highlands."