Lake Péligre is the second largest lake

Lake

A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland and not part of the ocean and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are larger and deeper than ponds. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams,...

 in Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

, and is located in the Centre Department

Centre Department

Centre is one of the ten departments of Haiti, located in the center of the country, along the border with the Dominican Republic. It has an area of 3,675 km² and a population of 564,200 . Its capital is Hinche. It borders the Dominican Republic to the east. It is the only landlocked...

. Tracy Kidder

Tracy Kidder

John Tracy Kidder is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer of the 1981 nonfiction narrative, The Soul of a New Machine, about the creation of a new computer at Data General Corporation...

 describes it as "beautiful, blue waters set among steep, arid mountains".

It was created as a result of the construction of the Peligre Hydroelectric Dam

Péligre Hydroelectric Dam

The Péligre Dam is a hydroelectric dam located off the Centre Department on the Artibonite River of Haiti. It is the largest dam on the island of Hispaniola consisting of Haiti and the Dominican Republic....

 on the Artibonite River

Artibonite River

The Artibonite River is a 320 km long river in Haiti . It is the longest as well as the most important river in Haiti and the longest on the island of Hispaniola. Forming part of the international border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the river's sources are in the Cordillera Central in...

 in 1956–1957. The project was designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and financed by the Export-Import Bank of the United States

Export-Import Bank of the United States

The Export-Import Bank of the United States is the official export credit agency of the United States federal government. It was established in 1934 by an executive order, and made an independent agency in the Executive branch by Congress in 1945, for the purposes of financing and insuring...

. According to Tracy Kidder

Tracy Kidder

John Tracy Kidder is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer of the 1981 nonfiction narrative, The Soul of a New Machine, about the creation of a new computer at Data General Corporation...

's book Mountains Beyond Mountains

Mountains Beyond Mountains

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World is a non-fiction, biographical work by American writer Tracy Kidder. The story traces the life of physician and anthropologist Paul Farmer. The book was a New York Times Notable Book for 2003.-External links:*...

, Brown & Root was a contractor in the Péligre Dam project.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding the dam. Much of the benefit of the dam's construction has gone to a small group of wealthy individuals, at the expense of the poor farmers who utilized much of the land that is now submerged. The extreme poverty those displaced families have faced has largely been untold, but is often mentioned in the talks of Dr. Paul Farmer

Paul Farmer

Dr. Paul Edward Farmer is an American anthropologist and physician. He is currently the Kolokotrones University Professor at Harvard University, formerly the Presley Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, an attending physician and Chief...

; "if you saw with peasant eyes, the scene looked violent and ugly, a lake that had buried the good farmland and ravaged the highlands."