Located in inland Dalmatia, south of the source of the River Cetina, northeast of the State route D1 between the towns of Sinj and Vrlika.

[3] The reservoir was impounded in the Cetina canyon upstream of the Hrvatačko Polje (a karst field) by the construction of the 63 m high Peruća earth dam and grout curtain.

The Peruća lake reservoir active storage is about 37% of the mean annual inflow, and it considerably affects the Cetina flow regulation at the downstream power plants between Sinjsko Polje (field) and the Adriatic.

Before it was built, the State of SFRY nationalised land which belonged to the inhabitants of the neighbouring settlements of Vrlika, Garjak, Kosore, Ježević, Laktac, Dabar, Vučipolje, Zasiok, Bitelić, Rumin, Hrvace, Satrić, Potravlje, Maljkovo, Otišić and Maovice.

Before the artificial lake for the hydroelectric power station at Peruća was created, the Dragović monastery was moved to a hill not far from the old fortress at Gradina.

[5] The actions of the UNPROFOR officer Mark Nicholas Gray (Major in the British Royal Marines) prevented the disaster at the Dam because before the explosion he had raised the spillway channel and reduced the level of water in the lake by four meters.

[7] On January 29, a small Croatian army team, supported by engineers previously employed in dam maintenance, verified that the main outlet valve could be accessed.