Already in the 1980s in lower Gallura and Baronia there was awareness of how the Maccheronis dam, in Torpè, with only 20 million cubic meters of reservoir capacity, could no longer be sufficient to satisfy the needs of the thousands of agricultural companies of a vast territory, from San Teodoro to Siniscola, and to guarantee drinking water for the residents of five large municipalities and dozens of hamlets, as well as for the hundreds of thousands of summer vacationers.
Thus the Central Sardinia Reclamation Consortium identified an area, ''Giunturas'' in the Lodè countryside, where a second dam could be built. In 1998 the Region granted a loan of one billion and 700 million old lire, all spent on the executive project of the ''Abba Lughente'' barrage complete with surveys and geological reports. The project, however, remained on paper because, after being considered ''too impactful'' by the Ministry of the Environment, it ended up in a drawer.
Now the central Sardinia reclamation consortium and some mayors (but there is no shortage of opponents) want to relaunch it, given the continuous crises linked to drought in those territories, but also because that dam upstream of Maccheronis (reservoir capacity over 60 million), according to the president of the Consortium Ambrogio Guiso, «in addition to definitively resolving water problems, it could be an important defense against floods and capable of ensuring protection for inhabited centers that in the past have paid a heavy toll, including human lives ».
