Tarbela dam
Tarbela Dam is on the Indus River located in Haripur District, Hazara Division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) northwest of Islamabad in Pakistan. It is the largest earth filled dam in the world and second largest by structural volume. The dam is 485 feet (148 m) high above the riverbed. The dam forms the Tarbela Reservoir, with a surface area of approximately 250-square-kilometre (97 sq mi). The construction of the dam started in 1968 and was completed in 1974 and was designed to store water from the Indus River for irrigation, flood control, and the generation of hydroelectric power.
Fort Peck Dam
The second on our list is the Fort Peck Dam. It is the highest of six major dams along the Missouri River, located in northeast Montana in the United States. Its length is estimated at 21,026 feet (6,409 m). It is over 250 feet (76 m) in height. It creates Fort Peck Lake which is the fifth largest man-made lake in the United States. It is the largest hydraulically filled dam in the United States. The dam and the 134-mile-long (216 km) lake exist for the purposes of hydroelectric power generation, flood control, and water quality management. Construction for the same began in the year 1933 and was completed in 1940. It started generating electricity in the year 1943.
Atatürk Dam
Atatürk Dam originally known as the Karababa Dam, in the provinces of Adiyaman and Sanliurfa, is located on the Euphrates River in the Anatolia region of Turkey. The purpose of this dam was to generate electricity and also irrigation. The construction of this dam began in 1983 and completed in 1990. It is a zoned rock-fill dam with a central core on the Euphrates River. The dam has annual average of 26 654 billion m3 of water flow capacity. A total of 48.7 billion m3 of water storage is there. The reservoir created behind the dam, called Lake Atatürk Dam (Turkish: Atatürk Baraj Gölü), is the third largest in Turkey. It is the biggest dam in Europe and Turkey. The dam and the hydroelectric power plant, which went into service after the upfilling of the reservoir was completed in 1992, are operated by the State Hydraulic Works (DSİ).
Houtribdijk
The Houtribdijk is a dike in the Netherlands, built between 1963 and 1975 as part of the Zuiderzee Works. It is a 27 kms long road that connects the cities of Lelystad and Enkhuizen. Houtribdijk is actually a dam separating IJsselmeer and Markermeer. It took 12 years for the construction of the same. Approximately 8500 vehicles use the road everyday and the speed limit is 100 km/hr.
Oahe Dam
The Oahe Dam in the United States is along the Missouri River, just north of Pierre, South Dakota in the United States. Its construction began in the year 1948 only to be completed in the year 1962. The fourth largest manmade reservoir in the United States is Lake Oahe and the same is created by this dam. It supplies irrigation, conservation, flood control and electric power to many Midwestern states as well as abundant recreation along Lake Oahe.
Gardiner Dam
The Gardiner Dam on the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatchewan is the third largest embankment dam in Canada. Highway 44 crosses the river atop the dam. It creates Lake Diefenbaker and diverts considerable portion of the South Saskatchewan’s flow into the Qu’Appelle River. It took 8 years to complete and was completed in the year 1967. The Dam is 5000 meters long, 65 meters high, and it discharges 7,500 cubic meters of water a second. An integrated power generating plant, SaskPower’s Coteau Creek Hydroelectric Station, produces a net 186 MW of electricity from three 62 MW generators. The dam gets its name from a former Premier of Saskatchewan and longtime federal cabinet minister, James G. Gardiner.
Mangla Dam
The Mangla Dam is located on the Jhelum River in the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. It is the 9th largest dam in the world. The project was designed and supervised by Binnie & Partners of London and it was built by Mangla Dam Contractors. Mangla Dam Contractors is a consortium of eight U.S. construction firms which was sponsored by Guy F. Atkinson Company of South San Francisco. It took 6 years for completion only to be completed in 1967. The dam structure is 453 feet (138 metres) above ground level, about 10,300 feet (3,140 metres) wide at its crest, and had a volume of 85.5 million cubic yards (65.4 million cubic metres) at the time of completion. Mangla Dam had an initial installed power capacity of at least 600 megawatts, which was increased to 1,000 megawatts in the mid-1990s.
Oroville Dam
Oroville Dam is an earth filled embankment dam on the Feather River east of the city of Oroville, California in the United States. At 770 feet (230 m) high, it is the tallest dam in the U.S. It was completed in the year 1968 and it is the highest dam in the United States. Oroville Dam has the capacity to generate 819 megawatts of electricity. It holds reputation for one of the highest embankment dams in the world. It creates a reservoir that can hold 3.5 million acre-feet of water. Oroville Dam has the capacity to generate 819 megawatts of electricity. Stored water released from Oroville Dam flows down the Feather River and enters the Sacramento River system near Verona. This dam provides irrigation water and also helps in flood control.
San Luis Dam
San Luis Dam is also known as the B.F. Sisk Dam, after Bernie Sisk. It creates San Luis Reservoir, which serves as an off-stream reservoir for the California State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. The dam is 305 feet (93 m) tall and was completed in 1967. The dam is responsible to supply irrigation water to some 600,000 acres located in the western portion of Fresno, Kings, and Merced Counties. There are two reservoirs, upper and lower namely San Luis Reservoir and O’Neill Forebay.
