Bolivian President Evo Morales inspected the POWERCHINA-built Misicuni Dam and attended a water-releasing ceremony on March 28.

        President Morales pressed the button releasing the water to celebrate the completion of the dam which will alleviate the long-existing problems of drought and water shortage in Cochabamba city, capital of Bolivia’s Cochabamba province.

        He said he was satisfied with the progress of the project and thanked all the hard work.

        Thanks to the completion of the project, 500,000 residents in the city can drink freshwater from Misicuni Dam in the scheduled time, according to Morales.

        Located in the Quillacollo city of Cochabamba province, the Misicuni Dam will offer drinking and irrigation water supply to the central valley region of the province.

        The concrete face rock-filled dam is 117 meters tall at an elevation of 3,782 meters at the top of the dam, and a storage capacity of 154 million cubic meters. It began to store water on Oct 3, 2016 (with an elevation of 3666.5 meters), and it rose by 56.11 meters to an elevation of 3,722.61 meters by March 28. The storage has reached 29 million cubic meters. It is expected to reach the designed water level by 2020.

President Morales (C) inspected the construction site.

President Morales made a speech at the ceremony.