According to the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), in order to start the construction, a series of studies for feasibility and environment impact have to be completed, which could be ready this year.

The site for the construction of the dam will be the General river, approximately 10.5 km away from Buenos Aires city in Puntarenas, between the Térraba and Paraiso communities.

The Diquís will create a reservoir of 55 square kilometers with the General river and will relocate 1.100 people. The lake will keep water from dry season to wet season.

Its reservoir will cover an area of approximately 6815 hectares and will have a built-in power of 631 megawatts, producing 3.050 gigawatts/hour each year.

The construction work will cost $1.850 million, more than any other public work in the history of the country.

The normal level of operation of the reservoir will vary between 300 and 260 meters above sea level (m.a.s.l.) but the reservoir area will extend to the height of 310 m.a.s.l., considering the reservoir contention area for eventual extraordinary “floods” of the General river.

For the production of 608 MW, the water of the reservoir will be driven through a tunnel of about 11 km of length that goes under Fila Brunqueña and a high-pressure pipe system with a length of around 1 km to a machine room with the capacity to produce this amount of power.

Once the water is used to produce electricity, it flows out of the machine room and is driven through a disposal tunnel that flows into a structure known as the restitution canal, located approximately 2 km west of Palmar Norte town, that incorporates the water into a bed of the Grande de Térraba river.

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