Dams are one of mankind’s most important infrastructures.
Without it, we would all have nowhere to live,
as majority of Earth’s cities, towns, and villages would be flooded with water
from overrun rivers and oceans.
Apart from being used as reservoirs to help control water,
dams have other important uses like irrigations, aquaculture,
and one of the most significant uses, generating of electricity.
For a dam to perform all these functions, it all comes down to how well it is built.
And on that note guys, I welcome you back to “The Drop”.
In today’s video,
we will be taking a look at some dams that perform the aforementioned functions so easily;
it has become nothing sort of impressive.
Here are the top 8 most impressive dams in the world.
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8. HIRAKUD DAM, INDIA
Not long after India gained their independence,
one of the first major multipurpose river valley projects that were started was the Hirakud dam.
The dam is built across the Mahanadi River,
just about 9 miles from Sambalpur in the state of Odisha in India.
Behind the Hirakud dam is a 34 miles extended lake, called Hirakud reservoir.
The dam was to tackle the problem of the devastating floods
that ravaged the Mahanadi basin in the early 1900s.
On March 15th, 1946,
Sir Hawthorne Lewis, the governor of Odisha laid the first foundation stone of the Hirakud dam.
By 1953, the full construction of the dam was completed,
a year before the estimated time of completion.
The 1.1 billion dollars Hirakud dam started agricultural irrigation in 1956,
power generation in 1957,
and it finally reached it peak potential in 1966.
The dam has an overall length of 3.0 miles, spanning between two hills,
to the left; the Laxmidungri, and to the right: the Chandili Dunguri.
Hirakud dam is the longest major dam eastern dam in India
and it also forms the biggest artificial lake in India,
with a reservoir capacity holding of 287 sq miles.
To discharge some of the water it holds, three canals have been built around the dam.
The Bargarh Main canal, Sason canal, and the Sambalpur canal,
the main canal has a water discharge rate of 4,000 cubic feet per second.
Most of the water discharged from the dam is allocated for industrial use
at the mineral processing and coal fired thermal power plants
located in Jharsuguda district and Sambalpur district respectively.
The dam can generate 307.5 MW of electrical power through its two power plants
located almost 14 miles apart.
On top of its other functions,
the Hirakud dam acts as a home for than 20 species of birds
and provides an ideal environment for wildlife to thrive.
7. NUREK DAM, TAJISKISTAN
Unlike the Hirakud dam in India,
the Nurek dam’s main purpose is not to control flooding.
The Nurek dam or the Nurek hydro-electric station is an earth-fill embankment dam
on the Vakhsh River in Tajikistan.
The main purpose of the dam is to serve as a hydroelectric power generator.
The Nurek dam was uniquely constructed with a central core of cement,
which forms an impermeable barrier between a 980 feet high rock and earth fill construction.
The construction of the dam can be credited to the Soviet Union,
who completed the damp project between 1961 and 1980.
The dam’s power station is able to produce 3,015 MW of electricity
and it runs on 9 Francis turbine generators,
the first was commissioned in 1961 and the last commissioned in 1972.
Originally, the power station could on generate 2700 MW of elctricity,
but after each generator were redesigned and retrofitted,
the power capacity way increased.
At the time of its official opening, the Nurek dam was the tallest dam in the world,
currently it is the second tallest man made dam in the world, behind the Jinping-I-Dam.
The Nurek dam forms the Nurek reservoir, which is the largest reservoir in Tajikistan
with a capacity of 10.5 km3.
Nurek reservoir stretches over 40 miles in length, and has a surface area of 38 sq miles.
is drives the hydroelectric plant located in the dam,
and it is one of the most important reservoirs in Tajikistan,
storing water used for agricultural irrigation.
6. MANGLA DAM, PAKISTAN
Located on the Jhelum River in the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir in Pakistan,
the Mangla dam is multipurpose dam and the seventh largest dam in the world.
The dam got its name from the village of Mangla,
and it was built by Mangla dam contractors,
an association that consisted of 8 U.S construction firms
sponsored by Guy F. Atkinson Company of South San Francisco.
The dam was created to solve the problem of the absence of storage reservoirs
which conserve vast amount of surplus water to be used during critical growing periods
and to strengthen the country’s irrigation system.
Mangla dam is one of the two dams that were constructed as part of the Indus Basin project,
the other dam is the Tarbela dam on River Indus.
The construction of the dam started in 1961 and finished in 1965,
with over 1.47 billion dollars spent on the project,
most of which was provided by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
The Mangla dam’s component includes;
a reservoir embankment, intake embankment, main spillway, emergency spillway,
intake structures, 5 tunnels and a power station.
In regards to the dam power station, it consists of turbines, generators, and transformers.
There are 10 vertical Francis turbines in the power station;
each of these turbines has an output of 10,290 kW.
Mangla dam is one of the most important dams in Pakistan,
because, even though primary and secondary function is irrigation and generation electrical power,
it also works as a flood control structure.
5. OROVILLE DAM, USA
Built on the Feather River east of the city of Oroville, California,
the Oroville dam is an earthfill embankment dam
that was constructed by the California Department of Water Resources,
as one of the key features of the California State Water project
Oroville dam stands at an incredible height of 770 feet,
making it the tallest dam in the U.S
and it holds the reservoir of Lake Oroville,
the second largest man-made lake in the state of California,
capable of storing more than 4.3 trillion liters of water.
Construction of Oroville dam started in 1962,
but it immediately faced numerous difficulties like multiple floods that slowed down its completion
and a major train wreck on the rail line used to transport material to the dam site.
The dam project was finally completed for use in 1968,
and not long after began to generate electricity,
following the completion of the Edward Hyatt Pump-Generating plant.
Ever since its completion,
Oroville dam has not only been the major supplier of irrigation water in the San Joaquin Valley,
it has also prevented large amount of flood damage worth more than 1.3 billion dollars between 1987 and 1999.
4. OAHE DAM, USA
Known as one of the largest dams in the United States,
Oahe dam is a large earthen dam built on the Missouri River, north of Pierre, South Dakota.
The dam creates the fourth largest man-made reservoir in the United States known as Lake Oahe.
The reservoir stretches 231 miles up the course of the Missouri to Bismarck, North Dakota.
To tell you how impressive this dam is,
most of north-central united is powered by the electricity produced from the Oahe dam’s power plant.
In 1944, the Oahe dam was authorized by the flood control act,
and by 1948, the United States Corps of engineers began the construction of the dam.
On August 17, 1962,
the 34 million dollars dam was officially dedicated by President John F. Kennedy,
and in the same year, the Oahe dam began the production of electricity.
The 245 feet tall dam was completed using 1,122,000 cubic yards of concrete
and it has a spillway width of 456 feet.
For each of the turbines located in the dam,
they produce 112.29 MW of power;
the states served with this electricity are North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Montana.
3. GARDINER DAM, CANADA
The Gardiner dam is the third largest embankment dam in Canada
and one of the largest in the world.
The dam is built on the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatchewan,
and it rises 209 feet in height,
stretches 3.1 miles in length and has a width of 0.93 miles.
The dam is owned and operated by the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority
and it was named after the former premier of Saskatchewan and longtime federal cabinet minister,
James G. Gardiner.
The Gardiner dam might be the biggest embankment dam on the South Saskatchewan River,
but it isn’t the only dam there.
The other dam at the location is the Qu’Appelle River Dam.
Gardiner dam creates a reservoir upstream known as Lake Diefenbaker,
the remaining portion of held back water flows into the Qu’Appelle River,
and hence the need for a smaller dam to be constructed.
Construction of both dams started in 1959
and was completed 8 years later in 1967.
The dam’s integrated power generating plant,
SaskPower’s Coteau Creek Hydroelectric Station,
produces about 186 MW of electricity from three 62 MW generators.
Apart from being one of Canada’s most important dams,
Gardiner dam also serve as a tourist spot,
with many people visiting to take a tour of its power station.
2. FORT PECK DAM, USA
Earlier in the video, we talked about the Oahe dam,
one of the dams along the Missouri River.
Well, the Fort Peck dam is the highest of the six major dams built along the Missouri River.
The dam is located in northeast Montana in the United States, near Glasgow,
and it is adjacent to the community of Fort Peck.
The Fort Peck dam stands at a maximum height of over 250 feet
and it stretches in length at 21,026 feet,
making the largest hydraulically filled dam in the United States.
The dam also creates Fort Peck Lake,
which more than 130 miles long, and 200 feet deep,
earning it the title as the fifth largest artificial lake in the US.
The construction of the dam started in 1933,
and with help of over 10,546 workers it was completed in 1940,
with power generation begin just 3 years later.
The power station at Fort Peck dam is able to produce 185 MW of electricity,
and unlike most of the other dams we have on the video today, it is a multi-purpose dam,
existing for hydroelectric power generation, flood control, and water quality control.
1. TARBELA DAM, PAKISTAN
Tarbela dam is another earth-filled dam that is located along the Indus River in Pakistan.
The dam is about 20 miles from the city of Swabi, and it is the largest earth-filled dam in the world
and also the largest dam by structural volume.
Just like the Fort Peck dam,
Tarbela Dam is a multipurpose dam existing for irrigation, flood control
and generation of hydroelectric power.
Tarbela dam was constructed in the 1960s as part of the Indus Basin Project,
and its initial objective was to supply water for irrigation by storing flows from the monsoon till periods of low water supply.
By the mid 1970s, the function of the dam was expanded to power generation,
and by 1992, the dam’s power station was pumping out 3,478 MW of electricity.
Today, the dam’s power station is able to pump out 4,888 MW of electricity,
which is going to be increased to 6,298 MW
with the completion of a planned extension of the power station.
On that note, we have come to the end of the video for today.
What are your thoughts on these Dams?
Do you think they are truly impressive?
Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
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