Salvajina Dam, Embankment dam and hydroelectric station in Suarez, Colombia.

Salvajina Dam is an embankment dam with a hydroelectric power station on the Cauca River near Suarez. The facility uses three turbines to generate electricity for the region and holds a large reservoir for water storage and flood management.

The dam was completed in 1985 and created a large reservoir that permanently transformed the region. The project became an important power source for western Colombia and changed how water flows through the Cauca Valley.

The reservoir flooded land inhabited by communities of the Honduras reservation in Morales and Cerro Tijeras in Suárez. Estimates of the people displaced range from 3,000 to 6,000. According to Biodiversidad en América Latina y El Caribe, those evicted were not properly compensated, and the Campaña Prohibido Olvidar reports that protesters were harassed; lawyer Oscar Elías López, who accompanied them, was shot dead in a café in Cali.

The dam sits on the Cauca River at Buenos Aires, Suárez municipality, reached by road from Cali through the Cauca Valley. The crest is a working hydroelectric site, so viewing is from public roads and the reservoir shore rather than the structure itself. Water releases are managed by the CVC for flood control, so river levels downstream can change.

The reservoir's normal surface lies at 1,155 m above sea level, not 1,145 m. The 148 m concrete-face rock-fill dam was designed by the Colombian firm Ingetec S.A., and the intake tower feeds three Francis turbines of 90 MW each.