Construction on the dam began in March 1987 but stopped in September 1988 because a debt crisis stalled funding.

On November 15 of that year, the reservoir reached its maximum level of 130 metres (430 ft).

Directly northeast of the dam is its spillway with 12 floodgates and a maximum capacity of 33,000 cubic metres per second (1,200,000 cu ft/s).

[2][3] Part of the reservoir and the canyons upstream to the Paulo Afonso Hydroelectric Complex are protected by the 26,736 hectares (66,070 acres) Rio São Francisco Natural Monument.

It was designed by Promon and contains 6 x 527 megawatts (707,000 hp) Francis turbines that were manufactured by Siemens.