The Biggest dams in the world

Dams

The culture of dam building has been known since antiquity, but in the recent period it has developed a great deal, and the number of dams has increased in various parts of the globe, and based on their importance, different countries in the world began to compete in their establishment, and despite the high cost of material changes that caused them, Nature during its construction, and the exposure of its daughters to many dangers during the construction operations, but this did not prevent its construction; Because it provides clean hydroelectric energy, it produces electricity that dispenses with the use of oil and coal to generate electric power, and it also greatly reduces the problem of environmental pollution.

Definition of dam

A dam is defined as an engineering building that is constructed to collect and impound water. Dams are classified according to their shape and the materials used in their construction, in addition to the purpose of their establishment. Its facade is made of concrete with protective beams.

The Three Gorges Dam is the largest in the world

The Three Gorges Dam is the largest in the world in terms of the amount of electricity that is generated through it. The energy is produced by burning 50 million tons of coal or burning 25 million tons of crude oil. The Three Gorges Dam is located on the third-longest river in the world, the Yangtze River in Hubei Province, China.

The Three Gorges Dam was built at the expense of many areas of great beauty in China; More than a thousand archaeological sites were flooded for its construction, and about a hundred towns and settlements were demolished, which resulted in forcing approximately 1.24 million people to move from their places of residence to build this great dam. In the event of its collapse, it is expected to claim the lives of millions of residents who live near it, an estimated 360 million people.

The dam is 7,661 feet long and 600 feet high. It is built of concrete and steel. Approximately 510,000 tons of steel were used in it. It is believed that this amount is enough to build the Eiffel Tower 60 times. The dam’s reservoir area is 405 square miles; This contributes to the arrival of large quantities of ocean waters to it and prevents the occurrence of floods in that region, and the cost of building the dam was about 30 billion dollars from the beginning of the work until its completion.

The purpose of building the Three Gorges Dam

The Chinese government approved the decision to build the dam in 1992, and work began in 1994 and ended in 2006. The objectives of building the dam are as follows:

• Energy generation: An energy of 84.6 billion kilowatt-hours is generated from this dam, which is clean hydroelectric or hydraulic energy that does not pollute the environment, which makes China rely less on the use of polluting coal for energy generation.
• Reducing floods: There have been many floods in China throughout history, especially in the Yangtze River, which claimed thousands of lives, in addition to causing many losses and severe damage, and the dam controls approximately 22.15 billion cubic meters of water, and this limits the Floods happen.
• Tourism: The Three Gorges Dam is the largest hydroelectric or hydraulic dam in the world, which has made it a magnet for tourists from all over the world.
• Maritime Navigation: The dam allows large ships to move and transport goods freely to the sea in Shanghai.

The world’s largest dams

The Three Gorges Dam is the largest in the world, and there are many huge dams in different places around the world, and they are arranged from the largest to the least massive as follows:

• Itaipu Dam: It is second only to the Three Gorges Dam. It was built in Brazil. To generate enough hydroelectric power for its residents. The engineers started their work on the dam after they found that the best place to build it is the Parana River, which is classified as the seventh-largest river among the world’s rivers, and it is located on the borders of Paraguay. Work began in 1975 and ended in 1984. The length of the dam is 7979 m, its height reaches 196 m, and its water tank has a capacity of 29 billion cubic meters of water.
• Hoover Dam: The Hoover Dam is located in America, and is ranked third in terms of its magnitude. The Hoover Dam was built on the Colorado River between the counties of Nevada and Arizona. Its construction began in 1931 and ended in 1935. Its length is 379 m, its height is 221 m, and its reservoir allows the storage of 36 billion cubic meters of water.
• Akosombo Dam: Akosombo Dam is located in African Ghana. Its construction began in 1965 AD on the Volta River, with a height of 134m and a length of 700m. The main objective of it, as in the rest of the dams that preceded it, was to produce hydroelectric power.
• Grand Dickens Dam: The Grand Dickens dam is located in Switzerland in the Alps, where the waters of snow and the waters of the Dixons River are collected, as well as the waters of other rivers; It has a storage capacity of 4 million cubic meters of water, a height of 285 m, and a length of more than 100 km of tunnels.
• North Sea Dam: The North Sea Dam is located in the Netherlands; The main objective of its construction was to confront the floods of the North Sea and protect the lands from them, as most of the Dutch lands are located at a lower level than sea level, and this dam includes gates made of steel that open in natural conditions; To leave the waves free to move, but when exposed to flooding, the Dutch lands are protected by closing them.
• Ataturk Dam: The Ataturk Dam is located in Turkey on the Euphrates River in southeastern Anatolia. It was built in 1992 with a height of 184 m and a length of 1820 m. Its storage capacity is about 48 billion cubic meters of water. It is classified as one of the largest dams in the world, producing 2,400 MW. of electrical energy per hour; It includes eight turbines that generate electric power.
• Almendra Dam: The Almendra dam is located in Spain on the Tormes River. It was established in 1970, and its height is 202 m, while its length is 667 m. Its water storage capacity is 2586 million cubic meters.
• Juri Dam: The Juri Dam was built in Venezuela in 1978. Its length is 1300 m, and its height is 16 m. Its water storage capacity is about 135 billion cubic meters. Its electricity production is estimated to be about 70% of Venezuela’s energy needs.
• Bennett Dam: Bennett Dam is located in Canada. It is one of the Canadian dams. It was built in 1968, with a height of 186 m and a length of 2086 m. Canadian dams supply Canada with approximately 62% of its electrical energy needs.