Dams, Five biggest in the World: Advantages and Concerns [IGEO.TV]

Dams are barriers built across rivers and streams to confine and regulate water flow for irrigation and hydroelectricity. However, controversy has surrounded the construction of dams over the past 50 years because of their social, economic, and environmental impact. By the 1950s, dams became internationally synonymous with modernity and economic development. The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, located in Yiling District, Yichang, Hubei province, China. The Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest power station in terms of installed capacity (22,500 MW). In 2012, the amount of electricity the dam generated was similar to the amount generated by the Itaipu Dam. The Nurek Dam is an earth fill embankment dam on the Vakhsh River in the central Asian nation of Tajikistan. Construction of the dam began in 1961 and was completed in 1980, when Tajikistan was still a republic within the Soviet Union. At 300 m (984 ft) it is currently the second tallest man-made dam in the world. The Rogun Dam, also along the Vakhsh in Tajikistan, may exceed it in size when completed. The Grande Dixence Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Dixence River at the head of the Val d'Hérens in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. At 285 m (935 ft) high, it is the tallest gravity dam in the world and is part of the Cleuson-Dixence Complex. With the primary purpose of hydroelectric power generation, the dam fuels four power stations, totaling the installed capacity to 2,069 MW, generating approximately 2,000 GWh annually, enough to power 400,000 Swiss households. The Inguri Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Inguri River in Georgia. Currently it is the world's second highest concrete arch dam with a height of 271.5 metres (891 ft). It is located north of the town Jvari. It is part of the Inguri hydroelectric power station (HES) which is partially located in the partially recognised Abkhazia. The Chicoasén Dam (officially known as Manuel M. Torres) is an embankment dam and hydroelectric power station on the Grijalva River near Chicoasén in Chiapas, Mexico. The dam's power plant, known as "Manuel Moreno Torres" contains 5 x 300 MW, 3 x 310 MW Francis turbine-generators. Torres was Comisión Federal de Electricidad's (the dam's owner) Director General in the later 1950s. The original generators were first operational in 1980 while the 310 MW units were ordered in 2000 and operational by 2005. Since then, the hydroelectric power station is the largest in Mexico. The dam was designed in the early 1970s and constructed between 1974 and 1980 under topographical and geological constraints. It is an earth and rock fill embankment type with a height of 261 m (856 ft) and length of 485 m (1,591 ft). It withholds a reservoir of 1,613,000,000 m3 (1,307,680 acre·ft) and lies at the head of a 52,600 km2 (20,309 sq mi) catchment area. http://igeo.tv/ Watch Video Nicaragua Canal: Alternatives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BsEC0_IkLI Igeo TV en español: ver videos, agencia de noticias y venta de metraje en: http://www.youtube.com/user/igeotv

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