Dams
Major dams and the reservoirs they impound.
Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
The largest hydroelectric scheme in Africa, on the Blue Nile, and the most consequential current transboundary water dispute in the world.
Three Gorges Dam
The largest power station in the world by installed capacity, and one of the largest engineering interventions ever made in a major river.
- Height
- 181 m
- Installed capacity
- 22,500 MW
- Completed
- 2012
- Reservoir capacity
- approximately 39.3 billion m³
Aswan High Dam
Gave Egypt multi-year storage on the Nile, ending the annual flood and the silt deposition that had sustained Egyptian agriculture for millennia.
- Height
- 111 m
- Completed
- 1970
- Reservoir
- Lake Nasser
- Consequences
- Flood control and year-round irrigation, at the cost of downstream silt, delta erosion and increased fertiliser dependence
Hoover Dam
The dam that created Lake Mead and made large-scale settlement and irrigation of the American south west possible.
- Height
- 221 m
- Completed
- 1936
- Reservoir
- Lake Mead
- Generating capacity
- approximately 2,080 MW