Krichim Reservoir, reservoir in Bulgaria

Krichim Reservoir is a reservoir on the Vacha River in southern Bulgaria, filling the river's narrow valley for about 4 km across the lands of Krichim town and the villages of Ravnogor and Zhrebichko. Its concrete-gravity dam stands 104.5 m high and 270 m long along the crest, with a central spillway of three 10.5 m bays. The lake covers 0.8 km² and holds 20.3 million m³.

Krichim Reservoir was built between 1963 and 1972 as the fifth and final step of the Dospat-Vacha Cascade, a chain of dams and pumped-storage plants on the Vacha River owned by the National Electricity Company. Its concrete-gravity dam rises 104.5 m and measures 270 m along the crest. The reservoir stores 20.3 million m³ over 0.8 km², and its main outlet can empty the lake in 3.4 days.

The reservoir is known among anglers for its fish: brown trout, rainbow trout, zander, perch, chub, peled, nase, pumpkinseed, rudd, European barbel, carp and pike. It is fed by water from the Vacha Reservoir, processed by the Orpheus pumped-storage plant, and also receives water diverted from the Churinska River through a collection derivation.

The reservoir stretches about 4 km along the narrow Vacha valley, in the lands of Krichim, Ravnogor and Zhrebichko. The dam is a concrete-gravity structure 104.5 m high with a 270 m crest; its central spillway has three 10.5 m bays. The main outlet can empty the lake in 3.4 days. Access roads follow the valley from Krichim.

A portion of the water that flows into the reservoir arrives through tunnels redirected from a separate river system higher up in the mountains, not just from the Vacha itself. This kind of inter-basin water transfer is a hidden feature of the cascade that most visitors passing by would never suspect.