The longest river in Asia, the Yangtze River brings mixed blessings to China. Although it meets the water needs of millions of people, the river regularly overflows its banks. To protect residents and land in the lower Yangtze floodplains, China began construction on the Three Gorges Dam in 1994.
Published Jun 13, 2007
Authorities keeps a watchful eye on ice near a key dam on the Kyiv Reservoir.
Published Mar 31, 2012
This image from April 15, 2009, is one of the first images that astronauts on the International Space Station have been able to capture of the flooding behind the Three Gorges Dam in China.
Published Jun 8, 2009
Brazil’s Porto Primavera Dam sits on the Paraná River, 28 kilometers (17 miles) upstream from the confluence of the Paranapanema and Paraná Rivers. Constructed to provide hydroelectricity, this dam created the Porto Primavera Reservoir
Published Apr 27, 2008
Satellite data shows that water levels in Iraq’s largest reservoir have reached heights not seen in more than a decade.
Published May 8, 2019
The 12,000-year old town of Hasankeyf could soon be underwater due to the construction of a new dam.
Published Mar 17, 2020
Chile’s Bíobío River flows northwestward from the high Cordillera of the Andes to the Pacific Ocean near Concepción, about 450 kilometers south of Santiago. The river is known globally for spectacular white-water rafting. This image shows a section of the river that skirts around Callaqui volcano in the Andes, and features the Pangue Dam and reservoir filling a narrow, meandering segment of the Bíobío River valley. Completed in 1996, the dam is the first of six hydroelectric dams planned by ENDESA, a Chilean utility company. The future development of the Bíobío River is a point of intense debate among Chileans, and has been called Chile’s “defining environmental issue.”
Published Feb 16, 2004
As water levels rise from excessive monsoon rainfall, dam operators discharge water through spillway gates.
Published Jul 24, 2020
An aerial photo from July 6, 2009, and a satellite image from August 29, 2011, show the North Springfield Reservoir before and after Irene’s heavy rains.
Published Sep 1, 2011
People from several villages had to relocate to make way for a new dam that will give the country’s supply of electricity a boost.
Published Feb 24, 2018
The Bafing River travels through Guinea and Mali, and eventually joins with the Senegal River in western Africa. In the 1970s, drought struck the region, prompting a multinational effort to develop irrigation and power generation.
Published Dec 28, 2008
The Indus River basin extends from the Himalaya Mountains that form the northeastern boundary of Pakistan to the alluvial plains of Sindh near the Arabian Sea coastline. Tarbela Dam is part of the Indus Basin Project, which resulted from a water treaty signed in 1960 between India and Pakistan. This treaty guaranteed Pakistan water supplies independent of upstream control by India. Designed primarily for water storage rather than power generation, the dam was completed in 1977. Turquoise waters of the Indus River (to the south of the dam) reflect the high proportion of silt and clay suspended in waters released by the spillways.
Published May 30, 2005
