The largest dam in the world

Dams

The culture of dams has been known since ancient times, but it has evolved in the recent period a great development, and the number of dams has increased in various parts of the globe, and it is from its importance that the various countries in the world began to race and compete in its establishment, despite the high financial costs and the changes that bring about Nature while building it, and exposing her daughters to many dangers during construction, but this did not prevent her from building it, because she provides clean hydroelectric energy, as she produces electricity that sings the use of oil and coal to generate electrical energy, as well as It greatly reduces the problem of environmental pollution.

Definition of the dam

The dam is defined as an engineering building, which is created with the aim of collecting and holding water, and dams are classified based on their shape and the materials used in their construction, in addition to the goal of their construction, and the most common and widespread types of dams are those that are made of soil or rock materials with a soil mold, as they spread Its façade is made of concrete with protective supports.

The Three Gorges Dam is the largest dam in the world

The dam of the three corridors is considered the largest dam in the world in terms of the amount of electricity generated through it, as it is considered one of the largest power plants in the world, and the amount of energy produced is estimated to be equivalent to the amount of energy generated by 34 huge power plants, which is equivalent to the amount The energy 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 China’s Hubei Province.
The Three Gorges Dam was built at the expense of many beautiful regions in China. More than a thousand archaeological sites were flooded to build it, and about a hundred towns and settlements were demolished, which forced nearly 1.24 million people to move from their homes to build this great dam. In spite of the durability of the dam and its ability to withstand the strongest earthquakes, in the event of its collapse it is expected to take the lives of millions of people who live near it, and it is estimated that 360 million people.
The length of the dam reaches 7.661 feet, while its height reaches 600 feet. It is constructed of concrete and steel. About 510,000 tons of steel have been used in it. This amount is believed to be sufficient to build the Eiffel Tower 60 times, and the dam reservoir area is 405 square miles. This is It contributes to the arrival of large quantities of ocean water in it, and prevents the occurrence of floods in that region, and the cost of building the dam reached about 30 billion dollars from the beginning of the work until its completion.

The goal of building the Three Gorges Dam

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

• Power generation: 84.6 billion kwh of power 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 environmentally polluting coal for power generation.
• Flood Reduction: There have been many floods in China throughout history, especially in the Yangtze River, which has killed thousands of people, in addition to a lot of losses and severe damage, and the dam controls approximately 22.15 billion cubic meters of water, and this limits the occurrence of floods.
• 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.
• Shipping: The dam allows large ships to move, and transport large cargo by sea to the sea in Shanghai.

The largest dams in the world

The Three Gorges Dam is the largest of the dams 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 located in the second place after blocking the three passes, and it was built in Brazil, with the aim of generating enough hydroelectric capacity for its residents. 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 between the rivers of the world, and it is located on the borders of Paraguay. 196 m, and its water tank can expand to 29 billion cubic meters of water.
• Hoover Dam: The Hoover Dam is located in America, and it is ranked third largest. The Hoover Dam was built on the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona, where construction began in 1931 and ended in 1935, and its length reaches 379 meters, and its height is 221 meters, and its reservoir allows the storage of 36 billion cubic meters of water.
• Akosombo Dam: The Akosombo Dam is located in Ghana, Africa, construction began in 1965 on the Volta River, with a height of 134 meters, and a length of 700 meters, and the main objective of it, as was the case in the remaining dams that preceded it, was the production of hydropower.
• Grand Dickens Dam: The Grand Dickens dam in Switzerland is located in the Alps, where snow and the waters of the Dixons River are collected, as well as other rivers, where its storage capacity reaches 4 million cubic meters of water, and has reached a height of 285 m, while its length is more than 100 km from 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 it, since the majority of the Dutch lands are located at a low level from the sea surface. This dam includes gates made of steel that open in natural conditions, to leave the waves free to move On exposure to flooding, the Dutch lands are protected by being closed.
• Ataturk Dam: Ataturk Dam is located in Turkey on the Euphrates River located in southeastern Anatolia, and was built in 1992 AD with a height of 184 meters and a length of 1820 meters, with a storage capacity of about 48 billion cubic meters of water, as it is classified as one of the largest cumulative dams in the world, and produces 2400 MW of electric energy Per hour, it includes eight turbines that generate electric power.
• Almendra Dam: The Almendra Dam in Spain is located on the Turmus River. It was built in 1970 AD, and its height reaches 202 meters, while its length reaches 667 meters, and its water storage capacity is 2586 million cubic meters.
• Gori Dam: The Guri Dam was built in Venezuela in 1978, and its length reached 1300 m, and its height is 16 m, and its storage capacity of water is about 135 billion cubic meters, and its production of electricity was estimated at about 70% of Venezuela’s energy needs.
• Bennett Dam: The Bennett Dam is located in Canada, and it is one of the Canadian dams. It was built in 1968 AD with a height of 186 meters and a length of 2086 meters. The Canadian dams provide Canada with approximately 62% of its electricity needs.