It was constructed originally to attend the necessities of the production of electrical energy in the Parnaíba Hydroelectric generating plant.

It is currently utilized for the water supply for the Greater São Paulo by the Companhia de Saneamento Basico do Estado de São Paulo (SABESP), a Brazilian state owned utility that provides water and sewage services.

Between the 1980s and the 1990s, the absence of clear political laws determining use and occupation of the area contributed to the creation of clandestine and irregular neighborhoods around the reservoir.

Untreated human waste and sewage contaminated rivers and brooks that fed into the reservoir.

[2] The cleaning of the brooks and rivers and in the removal of the irregular housings will require substantial funding by SABESP.