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Dam↕ | Country↕ | River↕ | Year Completed↕ | Known For↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three Gorges Dam | China | Yangtze | 2006 | The largest hydroelectric power station on Earth generating 22,500 MW, so massive it slightly slowed the rotation of the Earth by redistributing water mass, displaced 1.3 million people and submerged 13 cities and 140 towns, the reservoir stretches 600 km upstream, China's most ambitious and controversial infrastructure project since the Great Wall |
| Hoover Dam | United States | Colorado | 1936 | The Art Deco masterpiece built during the Great Depression that employed 21,000 workers and killed 96 during construction, created Lake Mead which was the largest US reservoir, transformed the American Southwest from desert to habitable by providing water and power to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, a symbol of American ambition that attracts 7 million visitors annually |
| Itaipu Dam | Brazil / Paraguay | Paraná | 1984 | Held the record for most electricity generated annually until Three Gorges surpassed it, supplies 75% of Paraguay's electricity and 15% of Brazil's, a binational project between two countries that were nearly at war over the river, required diverting the seventh-largest river in the world through a 2 km bypass channel, one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World according to the American Society of Civil Engineers |
| Aswan High Dam | Egypt | Nile | 1970 | Ended the annual Nile flooding cycle that had defined Egyptian civilization for 5,000 years, created Lake Nasser which required the unprecedented relocation of Abu Simbel temple piece by piece, a Cold War flashpoint that triggered the Suez Crisis when the US withdrew funding and Egypt nationalized the canal to pay for it, the Soviet Union ultimately funded and helped build it |
| Grand Coulee Dam | United States | Columbia | 1942 | The largest concrete structure in the United States and the largest hydroelectric producer in America at 6,809 MW, Woody Guthrie was hired to write 26 songs about it including 'Roll On Columbia', powered the aluminum smelters and plutonium reactors that helped win World War II, its construction permanently blocked salmon migration on the upper Columbia River |
| Tarbela Dam | Pakistan | Indus | 1976 | The largest earth-filled dam in the world by structural volume, holding back the mighty Indus River that has sustained civilizations for 5,000 years, generates 3,478 MW and irrigates millions of hectares of farmland, a cornerstone of Pakistan's water infrastructure built with World Bank funding, the sheer scale of moving 106 million cubic meters of earth and rock made it one of the most labor-intensive dam projects ever |
| Guri Dam (Simón Bolívar) | Venezuela | Caroní | 1986 | Supplies roughly 73% of Venezuela's electricity making the entire nation dangerously dependent on a single dam, when drought lowered water levels in 2010 and 2016 the country faced nationwide blackouts and rationing, the fourth-largest hydroelectric dam in the world at 10,235 MW, a case study in why over-reliance on a single energy source can cripple a nation |
| Kariba Dam | Zambia / Zimbabwe | Zambezi | 1959 | Created Lake Kariba, the largest artificial lake by volume in the world, displaced 57,000 Tonga people in the Gwembe Valley during Operation Noah which also rescued 6,000 animals from rising waters, the dam wall is a double-curvature arch standing 128 meters high, concerns about structural integrity and seismic activity have made it one of the most monitored dams on Earth |
| Oroville Dam | United States | Feather River | 1968 | The tallest dam in the United States at 235 meters, gained worldwide attention in 2017 when its main and emergency spillways catastrophically eroded forcing the evacuation of 188,000 people downstream, the near-disaster exposed decades of deferred maintenance and became a cautionary tale about aging infrastructure, the $1.1 billion emergency repair was the most expensive dam repair in US history |
| Nurek Dam | Tajikistan | Vakhsh | 1980 | The tallest dam in the world from 1980 until 2013 at 300 meters, a Soviet-era engineering marvel that remains the backbone of Tajikistan's electricity supply generating 3,000 MW, built in one of the most seismically active regions on Earth, its planned successor Rogun Dam at 335 meters has been under construction since 1976 and keeps getting delayed by geopolitics and funding |
| Glen Canyon Dam | United States | Colorado | 1966 | Created the stunning but deeply controversial Lake Powell, Edward Abbey's novel The Monkey Wrench Gang fantasized about destroying it and helped launch the radical environmental movement, environmentalists argue it drowned one of America's most beautiful canyons, drought has dropped Lake Powell to dangerously low levels threatening both hydroelectric power and downstream water supply, the dam that made 'drain Lake Powell' a rallying cry |
| Vajont Dam | Italy | Vajont Creek | 1959 | The site of one of the worst engineering disasters in history — in 1963 a massive landslide sent 260 million cubic meters of rock into the reservoir creating a 250-meter tsunami wave that overtopped the dam and killed nearly 2,000 people in the valley below, the dam itself survived intact which proved the engineering was sound but the geology was catastrophically misjudged, a permanent reminder that dams must account for the mountains around them not just the water behind them |
| Daniel-Johnson Dam (Manic-5) | Canada | Manicouagan | 1968 | The largest multiple-arch buttress dam in the world with its distinctive 14 arches spanning 1,314 meters, part of Quebec's massive James Bay hydroelectric complex that made the province a clean energy powerhouse, the reservoir behind it fills the Manicouagan impact crater — a 214-million-year-old asteroid scar visible from space, one of the most visually striking dams ever built |
| Sardar Sarovar Dam | India | Narmada | 2017 | One of the most politically contested dams in history, Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy and the Narmada Bachao Andolan movement fought its construction for decades over the displacement of 320,000 people, Prime Minister Modi inaugurated it as a symbol of development and Gujarat's water security, the decades-long battle became a global case study in development versus displacement and indigenous rights |
| Rogun Dam | Tajikistan | Vakhsh | Under construction (foundations 1976, resumed 2016) | When completed will be the tallest dam in the world at 335 meters, has been under construction for 50 years making it one of the longest-running dam projects ever, caused a major diplomatic crisis between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan who feared it would restrict downstream water flow, a geopolitical flashpoint in Central Asia where water is more valuable than oil, a symbol of how dams can become instruments of interstate power |
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