Last Thursday, our class visited one of the most well-known dams in Portugal: the
Crestuma-Lever Dam. Located in Vila Nova de Gaia and Gondomar, this dam is the
passage over Douro River, one of the largest in our country. Its name is due to the fact
that it was designed by the parish of Crestuma, but ended up being built in the parish
of Lever.
At first, I thought that this visit would not be very interesting, nor in any way relevant to what we are learning in biology/geology or physics/chemistry, after all what’s fun in a dam? But at the end of the visit, I finally realized that I was totally wrong.
In addition to learning about the history of the dam, about the way it works, I ended
up finding that the existence of this type of construction provides a range of benefits
which include flood control, waste management and preservation of animal habitats.
Written by Catarina Ribeiro
