At present there are over one hundred and fifty large and small dams and reservoirs in Pakistan. Most of the dams and reservoirs had constructed during 1960 and 1975. According to the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD), total dams and reservoirs in Pakistan over the height of 15 meter are 150. Below is the list of top five biggest dams in Pakistan.
- Tarbela Dam:
First biggest dam in the list is Tarbela Dam that is located on the Indus River and is also the largest earth filled dam in the world and is the second largest by the structural volume. The dam is 148 meter high above riverbed. Construction started in 1968 and completed in 1976 at cost of $1,497 million. Total capacity of the dam is 13.69 cubic kilometers spread over the construction area of 168,000 km2 .
- Mangla Dam:
Next biggest dam in Pakistan is Mangla Dam that is constructed in the Jhelum River in the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. It is also the 9th largest dam in the world. The construction was began in 1961 and completed in 1967. It was constructed at the cost of $1.473 billion and funded by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
- Mirani Dam:
Mirani Dam is another major dam in Pakistan. It is a medium-sized multi-purpose dam that is located on the Dasht River in Balochistan. In terms of volume for flood protection it is the largest dam in the world having floodstock of 588,690 cubic hectometer. Its construction was began on July 8, 2002 and completed on October 2006.
- Warsak Dam:
Warsak Dam is a mass concrete gravity dam and located on the Kabul River northwest of the Peshawar city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It was completed in two phases. First phase was completed in 1960 and the second phase was completed in 1980-81. Total capacity of the Warsak Dam Hydropower Project us 243 MW.
- Sabakzai Dam:
Sabakzai Dam is an embankment dam at Zohb River in Balochistan. The construction of the dam began in 2004 and the irrigation works for the dam are still being constructed. According to ICOLD, Sabakzai Dam is the 7th largest in the world with a floodstock of 23,638 cubic hectometer.
