Mulargia dam is located in southern Sardinia. The earth dam has a height of 99 m and creates an artificial reservoir with volume of about 347 hm3 with a surface area of 12.5 km2. The upstream catchment has an area of 172 km2 and receives 600 mm of rain per year.

Mulargia reservoir serves as a drinking water source for the town of Cagliari and metropolitan area, and 20 villages in the greater area, adding up to a combined population of 700,000 inhabitants. The total annual abstraction for drinking water purposes is estimated to 100 hm3.

The water prior to supply is treated in the Water Treatment Plant of Simbirizzi with an 80 hm3/year (216.000 m3/day) maximum capacity. The plant includes microstraining, pre-ozonation and pre-chlorination, flocculation, dual sand-filtration, post-ozonation, activated carbon-filtration and disinfection.