The Sorraia River, or Rio Sorraia, is a river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 in Santarém District, Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

. It forms at the confluence of the Sor and Raia, near the town of Couço

Couço

Couço is a town in Portugal....

. Having a basin of 7556 km², it flows for 60km, joining the Tagus

Tagus

The Tagus is the longest river on the Iberian Peninsula. It is long, in Spain, along the border between Portugal and Spain and in Portugal, where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Lisbon. It drains an area of . The Tagus is highly utilized for most of its course...

 near Murteira. Along its length it receives the Divor, and, almost at the mouth, the Almançor.

Over time it had a vital role in the region and, according to historical records, Romans

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 and Arabs already settled here, using it for agriculture, communication and to export the products grown on the fertile lands of the Sorraia Valley where they developed ingenious irrigation systems.

It passes the municipalities of Coruche and Benavente and until the early twentieth century was still navigable, having known a significant flow of river traffic of agricultural and forestry products, including cork oak

Cork Oak

Quercus suber, commonly called the Cork Oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section Quercus sect. Cerris. It is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses, such as cork flooring. It is native to southwest Europe and northwest Africa.It grows to up to 20 m,...

, wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

 and grain

GRAIN

GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...

.

In the second half of the twentieth century it became part of the "Plano de Irrigação do Vale do Sorraia" (Plan for Irrigation of the Sorraia Valley), aimed at making better use of water resources to boost farm income in the region.

External links

• Associação de Regantes e Beneficiários do Vale do Sorraia (Association of Irrigators and Beneficiaries of the Sorraia Valley)