LISBON, Feb 7: Portugal will close the floodgates to the giant Alqueva dam project in the country’s parched south on Friday, in the face of objections from environmental groups, creating Europe’s largest artificial lake and submerging a tiny village.

The ceremony marking the filling of the hydroelectric dam — which was originally conceived in 1957 during the dictatorship of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar and is opening two years behind schedule — will be presided over by outgoing Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Guterres.

When the dam is filled to its maximum depth of 152 metres (500 feet), the resulting 250 square kilometre (156 square mile) lake will submerge 160 rocks covered with Stone Age drawings and the white-washed village of Luz.

The government has built a replica of the village on the future banks of the artificial lake at a cost of 39 million euros (34 million dollars) but so far no moving date has been set for the 400 inhabitants of Luz.

Many residents have told the media they are reluctant to leave their old homes behind and are dissatisfied with the quality of their new homes just two kilometres away.

Tourists have flocked in recent weeks to Luz, which means light in Portuguese, for a glimpse of the village that is expected to start disappearing under water at the end of 2002.

Construction of the dam involved felling over one million trees on the land that will be submerged, many of them cork oaks, in order to guarantee the quality of the water, leading to protests from environmental groups.

The environmentalists, who are asking opponents to the project to attend Friday’s ceremony dressed in mourning black, say the dam will destroy habitat for animals that include eagles, kites, wild boars and some of the few remaining Iberian lynxes.

Quercus, one of Portugal’s largest green groups and one of the most vocal opponents, wants the dam filled to just 139 metres. It says this would halve the surface area submerged and save more than 400,000 trees while only reducing the dams’ electricity output by 25 per cent.

The government, which is facing early elections in March, says the project will transform agriculture in the Alentejo region and help create jobs in what is one of the poorest areas in Western Europe.—AFP