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.
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.
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
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.