History of Dams Timeline

Britain completed the Aswan Low Dam across the Nile in Egypt in 1902. Raised in 1912 and again in 1933, it increased irrigation storage but was eventually overshadowed by the need for much larger flood-control and power facilities upstream.

Image source: Aswan Low Dam

The British administration and the Nizam's government investigated major irrigation storage on the Krishna River early in the 20th century. These studies laid groundwork for the much larger Nagarjuna Sagar project developed after Indian independence.

Built on the Tennessee River in Alabama, Wilson Dam became one of the first major projects of the Tennessee Valley region's modern hydropower development. It demonstrated the potential of large public dams to generate electricity and support navigation.

The United States created the Tennessee Valley Authority as a federally owned corporation to coordinate flood control, navigation, electricity generation, and regional development. Its network of dams became a model for multipurpose river-basin planning.

Image source: Tennessee Valley Authority

The United States Congress approved San Francisco's plan to dam Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park through the Raker Act. The decision became a landmark conflict between urban water supply and wilderness preservation.

The St. Francis Dam in California catastrophically failed shortly after midnight, releasing a wall of water through the Santa Clara River valley. The disaster killed more than 400 people and reshaped dam design, inspection, and regulatory practice in the United States.

Image source: St. Francis Dam

A huge landslide plunged into the reservoir behind Italy's Vajont Dam, sending a wave over the crest and killing about 2,000 people in downstream communities. The dam itself remained largely intact, but the disaster exposed the consequences of ignoring geological hazards.

Extreme rainfall from Typhoon Nina overwhelmed Banqiao Dam and other dams in China's Henan Province. The cascading failures caused catastrophic flooding and loss of life, prompting later reassessment of hydrological design standards and emergency warning systems.

The World Commission on Dams was formed in 1998 to evaluate the development effectiveness and social and environmental consequences of large dams. It brought governments, industry, civil society, and affected communities into an international policy review.

The commission published Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-Making in 2000. Its recommendations emphasized assessing alternatives, recognizing affected people's rights, sharing benefits, and improving transparency before approving major dam projects.

During the 2010s, China and mainland Southeast Asian countries expanded hydropower construction and planning along the Mekong and its tributaries. The projects generated electricity and revenue but raised concerns about sediment, fisheries, river flows, and transboundary governance.

Intense storms damaged the main spillway at California's Oroville Dam, forcing emergency use of the unlined emergency spillway and evacuation of roughly 188,000 people downstream. The incident prompted major reviews of spillway design, maintenance, inspections, and dam-safety oversight.

By the early 2020s, dam removal had become an increasingly prominent water-management and river-restoration strategy, especially in the United States and Europe. Aging infrastructure, safety liabilities, blocked fish migration, and changing energy and climate priorities drove the removal of numerous obsolete dams.

Construction of Hoover Dam on the Colorado River began during the Great Depression and was completed in 1936. The concrete arch-gravity dam created Lake Mead, generated hydroelectricity, controlled floods, and enabled large-scale water deliveries to the American Southwest.

Image source: Hoover Dam

Work began on Grand Coulee Dam on Washington's Columbia River in 1933. Completed in stages, it became the largest power station in the United States for decades and transformed irrigation, electricity production, and river management in the Pacific Northwest.

Image source: Grand Coulee Dam

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation completed Shasta Dam on California's Sacramento River during World War II. The reservoir provides flood control, irrigation storage, municipal water, and hydropower, while also altering fisheries and Indigenous landscapes.

India began construction of Bhakra Dam on the Sutlej River after independence. Completed in 1963, the concrete gravity dam became a centerpiece of India's agricultural modernization, supplying irrigation, flood control, and hydroelectric power.

Image source: Bhakra Dam

The Kariba Dam was completed across the Zambezi River in 1959 between present-day Zambia and Zimbabwe. Its reservoir and power station supported regional industry, but construction displaced communities and caused major ecological disruption.

Egypt began building the Aswan High Dam with Soviet assistance in 1960. Completed in 1970, the dam created Lake Nasser, regulated the Nile, expanded irrigation, and generated power, while reducing sediment delivery and inundating archaeological sites.

Image source: Aswan Dam

India's Sardar Sarovar project on the Narmada River was inaugurated in 1961, although construction and approvals continued for decades. The dam provides irrigation, drinking water, and hydropower, while provoking sustained opposition over displacement and environmental effects.

Image source: Sardar Sarovar Dam

Egypt formally inaugurated the Aswan High Dam in 1971, marking the completion of its principal structure. The project permanently changed the Nile's seasonal behavior and became a major symbol of postcolonial national development.

China's National People's Congress approved construction of the Three Gorges Project on the Yangtze River. The decision authorized one of the world's most ambitious dam schemes, combining flood control, navigation improvements, and massive hydropower generation.

Image source: Three Gorges Dam

Construction of the Three Gorges Dam began in 1994 near Yichang, China. The project required large-scale resettlement and environmental mitigation while creating the world's largest power station by installed capacity at the time of completion.

China began impounding the Three Gorges reservoir in 2003 after closing the river's diversion channel. The staged filling allowed the power and navigation systems to be brought online but intensified concerns about landslides, sediment, ecosystems, and displaced communities.

The main wall of the Three Gorges Dam was declared complete in 2006, though generating units and associated works continued afterward. Its 22,500-megawatt power station became a defining example of China's state-led infrastructure development.

Turkey began filling the reservoir behind the Ilisu Dam on the Tigris River in 2019. The project expanded hydropower and water-control capacity but submerged much of the historic town of Hasankeyf and intensified disputes over cultural heritage and downstream flows.

Ethiopia began the first stage of filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile in 2020. The project promises major electricity production and economic development while generating prolonged negotiations and tensions with Egypt and Sudan over reservoir operation and downstream water security.

Image source: Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam