which is the largest dam in the world?

Answer 1

The Saluda Dam (officially the Dreher Shoals Dam) is a hydroelectric dam located approximately 10 miles (15 km) west of Columbia, South Carolina, USA. It was built during the late 1920s on the Saluda River. At the time of its completion, the Saluda Dam was the world's largest earthen dam, creating the world's largest man-made lake, Lake Murray.

The following 1997 newspaper clipping tells you of what will be the largest, it is still under construction:

"China begins building world's largest dam
November 8, 1997

YICHANG, China (CNN) -- Chinese President Jiang Zemin led a celebration honoring the beginning of the building of the world's largest dam as workers began sealing off a dike to divert the Yangtze River.

China's engineers will now begin erecting a permanent wall, nearly 600-feet high, to harness the Yangtze, the world's third-longest river, and provide a huge source of hydropower for the world's most populous nation.

For China's leaders, the event is the realization of a dream dating back to 1919, when revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen first proposed building the dam.

China begins building world's largest dam
"The age-old dream of the Chinese people to develop and utilize the resources of the Three Gorges section of the Yangtze has come closer to being true," Jiang told the crowd of 5,000 who came Saturday to celebrate the official kickoff of the dam's construction. "The diversion of the Yangtze is a great moment in the modernization of our country."

When the dam is complete, it will be capable of pumping out 18,200 megawatts of electricity from 26 generators, each equal to a medium-sized nuclear reactor.

The price of progress

The building of the Three Gorges Dam, in Hubei province, is modern China's most ambitious construction project, and one of the most controversial in the world. It is also China's largest construction project since the building of the Grand Canal in the 10th century.

From start to finish, the project will cost up to $29 billion. More than one million people will be relocated -- 100,000 of them by the end of this year.

When the towering 1.2-mile wide wall is complete, in 2009, it will be used for the metamorphosis of one of China's most scenic and most pristine landscapes.

The result will be a 370-mile-long lake that will consume 19 counties, 153 towns, 4,500 villages, and the scenic canyons that have inspired poets and painters for centuries.

Communist China's founding father, the late Mao Tse-tung, once wrote a poem in which he dreamed of "walls of stone" to hold back "clouds and rain till a smooth lake rises in the narrow gorges."

Environmentalists say the rising water will doom migratory fish, eradicate rare plants and create water pollution. China says harnessing the river will control flooding and provide much-needed power."

Other sources insist that the Grand Coulee Dam in the U.S. is slightly larger. Details of that one:

Grand Coulee Dam is a hydroelectric gravity dam on the Columbia River in Washington, built by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. Along with the Hoover Dam it is among the most famous dams in the United States. The reservoir it backs up is called Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lake, named after the United States president who presided over the conception and completion of the dam.

The scope and size of the dam are hard to comprehend. The dam is almost a mile long and is taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza. In fact, all the pyramids at Giza could fit within the base of the Grand Coulee Dam. It is more than twice as tall as Niagara Falls.

Other sources claim the Itaipu Dam on the borders of Paraguay and Brazil is the biggest hydro-electric power plant in the world:

"Itaipu Binacional is a company that runs the largest operational hydroelectric power plant in the world. It is a binational undertaking run by Brazil and Paraguay at the Paraná River on the border section between the two countries, 15 km north of the Friendship Bridge.

The project ranges from Foz do Iguaçu, in Brazil, and Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, in the south to Guaíra and Salto del Guairá in the north. The installed generation capacity of the plant is 14 GW, with 20 generating units of 700 MW each. In the year 2000 it achieved its generating record of 93.4 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), which supplied 95% of the energy consumed by Paraguay and 24% of that consumed by Brazil."

It would seem the people who like making lists for Wikipedia have not got a World's Largest Dams List together yet, so we are rather stuck with these contradictory, conflicting reports. It seems that clear criteria for comparison (length? height? thickness? power generated?) are not being consistently applied.

What is clear is that dams make considerable environmental impact, not all of it foreseen.

Answer 2

'DAMN IT' - heard every second and everywhere on this planet! Just kidding :-)
China's Three Gorges Dam, is the world's largest in terms of electrictiy production and overall investment, it is not the biggest dam in the world. A close comparison in terms of size would be the Grand Coulee Dam in the U.S. which is slightly larger.

Answer 3

Hoover Dam????

Answer 4

Can't recall the name it is being built on the Yangsee River in China

Answer 5

I guess you can read this article

http://www.water-technology.net/features/feature-ten-largest-dams-in-the-world-reservoirs/

Answer 6

OK I probably have the name wrong but it's the chinese one on the "Ying se" river.

Answer 7

your bum