Ten of The Worlds Largest Dams

Dams play a very essential part in fulfilling the water and power needs of a country. Dams apart from generating electricity and power can cater for the needs of the agricultural sector as well. The basic functions of dams include the generation of power, supply of water, irrigation and flood control. Besides these basic purposes, other functions that dams perform are navigation and water diversion. Apart from these functions dams also add to the aquatic beauty of the site and can be a good tourist spot. Dams do vary in terms of their sizes and this post covers ten of the world’s largest…

1. Syncrude Tailings Dam (Mildred MLSB)

Located in Canada, it is the largest dam in the world. The dam is 88 meters long. The volume of the dam is 540 to 720 million cubic meters. Another name of the dam is Mildred lake Settling Basin. It was constructed in 1976-1978 and was reconstructed in 1995.

2. Tarbela Dam, Pakistan

Situated in Pakistan, built on the river Indus, it is the second-largest dam in the world. The storage capacity of the dam is 106-152 million cubic meters. The area which is covered by the dam is quite big and it covers a surface area of 259 square kilometres area. The dam was constructed in 1976.

3. Syncrude Tailings Dam ( Mildred SWSS)

Located in Canada, it is the third-largest dam in the world. The height of the dam is 50 meters and the volume of the dam is 119 million cubic meters approximately. The dam was reconstructed in 2009-2010.

4. Fort Peck Dam

Situated in Fort Peck, Montana US, it is the oldest dam. The storage capacity of the dam is 96 million cubic meters of water and the height is 76.4 meters. The dam is a great tourist spot too.

5. Ataturk Dam, Turkey

Located in Turkey the dam is also called as Karababa Dam. The height of the dam is 166 meters and the length of 1819 meters. The dam has a volume of 84 million cubic meters. The dam was constructed in 1983-1992.

6. Flevoland Dyke, Netherland

Located in the Netherlands, the dam is one of the largest dams in the world. The total capacity of the dam is 78 million cubic meters of water. The dam has scenic beauty too and is a great tourist attraction.

7. Guri Dam

Situated in the Bolivar state of Venezuela, the dam covers an area of 4250 sq kilometres. The height of the dam is 162 meters and it can hold water of 70 million cubic meters. The dam took a huge span of time to construct; it was constructed in the year 1963 to 1978.

8. Gardiner Dam

The dam is located in Canada, the length of the dam is 64 meters and the width is 1.5 km. The dam has a storage capacity of keeping 65.4 million cubic metre of water. It was constructed in the year 1959.

9. Mangla Dam

It is situated in Pakistan and was built on River Jhelum. The length of the dam is 3.14 km and the height is 138 meters. The dam has a water storage capacity of 65 million cubic meters. The dam was constructed in the year 1961 till 1967.

10. Oroville Dam

Located in California US, the dam is built on the Feather River. The length of the dam is 2110 meters and the height is 230 meters and it has a storage capacity of 59.6 million cubic meters of water