Mangla Dam

The Mangla Dam sits on a river.

It is a very large dam. It was built to help plants grow. The dam holds water for the dry times. This water goes to farms.

The dam also makes power. It uses the water to make electricity. Many people live near the big lake. The dam helps keep the land safe from floods. It is a very useful place.

The Mangla Dam is a very large dam in Pakistan.

It sits on the Jhelum River. This dam is the sixth-largest in the world. It was built to help farmers. Before the dam, water flow changed with the seasons. This made it hard to grow crops. The dam holds extra water during the monsoon season.

This water can be used for irrigation later. The dam also makes power. It uses a powerhouse to make electricity. Inside the powerhouse, water moves through turbines. A turbine is a machine with blades that spin. These turbines are connected to generators. The generators make the electricity.

Building the dam changed many lives. Over 110,000 people had to move from their homes. Many towns and villages were covered by the new lake. Some people moved to the United Kingdom. The dam was also part of a big project to help the whole country. In 2004, workers started a project to raise the dam. They made it 30 feet taller. This helps the dam hold even more water.

The Mangla Dam is a huge structure in Pakistan.

It sits on the Jhelum River in two places. These places are the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir and the Jhelum District of Punjab. This dam is actually the sixth-largest dam in the entire world. It is a multipurpose dam, which means it does many different jobs. One big job is helping farmers grow food. Before the dam, water levels changed too much with the seasons. The dam helps solve this by storing extra water for later.

The dam works by holding back the river to create a reservoir. This reservoir is a large lake that stores water. To make electricity, the water moves through five long tunnels. These tunnels are made of steel and concrete. The tunnels lead to a powerhouse at the bottom. Inside the powerhouse, the water spins ten vertical Francis type turbines. A turbine is a machine with blades that spins when water hits it. These spinning turbines are connected to generators. The generators then turn that movement into electrical power for people to use.

Building such a large dam took many years of hard work. The project began in 1961 and was finished in 1965. A British firm called Binnie & Partners was the lead designer. They were led by a man named Geoffrey Binnie. Eight American construction firms also worked on the project. They were part of a group called the Mangla Dam Contractors. These firms were sponsored by the Guy F. Atkinson Company from California. Many workers, including Mr. Iqbal Hussein, worked very hard to finish the job.

There are many interesting facts about the dam's size and cost. The dam was built for a cost of one billion dollars. The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank provided the money. The main embankment is made of earthfill with a clay core. It has a maximum height of 210 feet and a length of 4,826 feet. In 2004, a new project raised the dam height by 30 feet. This made the new maximum height 482 feet. This change helped the dam hold even more water for the country.

Building the dam changed the lives of many people. Over 110,000 people had to leave their homes because of the new lake. More than 280 villages and towns like Mirpur were covered by water. Because of this, many people moved to the United Kingdom. Today, about 747,000 Mirpuris live in the UK. This is a large part of the British Pakistani community. Some people even moved to cities like Bradford or Birmingham. This shows how one big project can connect people across the whole world.

The Mangla Dam is a massive multipurpose dam located in Pakistan.

It sits on the Jhelum River. The structure spans the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir and the Jhelum District of Punjab. As a multipurpose dam, it serves several vital roles for the region. Its primary goal is to manage water for irrigation. It also generates large amounts of hydroelectric power. Additionally, the dam acts as a flood control structure. It holds back water during the heavy monsoon season to prevent downstream flooding.

To manage water, the dam creates a large reservoir. This is an artificial lake that stores surplus river water. The dam's main embankment is an earthfill structure. It uses a clay core to prevent water from leaking through. The shoulders of this embankment are covered with gravel and A-type sandstone. The dam also includes several other parts to manage water flow safely. There is an intake embankment made of earthfill with a B-type sandstone core. A main spillway handles excess water through nine radial gates. This spillway can move 1.1 million cusecs of water. An emergency spillway, which is a weir type, can move 0.23 million cusecs.

Generating electricity is a complex mechanical process. Water from the reservoir enters five steel-lined tunnels. These tunnels are 1,560 feet long and carved into the bedrock. The tunnels lead down to a powerhouse at the base of the dam. Inside the powerhouse, the water flows into ten vertical Francis type turbines. A Francis turbine is a specific type of machine that uses water pressure to spin. Each turbine has an output of 138,000 brake horsepower. These spinning turbines are connected to umbrella-type generators. The generators convert the mechanical motion into electrical energy. Finally, three-phase transformers prepare the electricity for use in the power grid.

The history of the Mangla Dam is tied to international agreements. In 1960, the Indus Waters Treaty was signed. This treaty gave Pakistan the rights to develop the Jhelum, Chenab, and Indus river basins. Before this, Pakistan's agriculture relied on unregulated river flows. This caused problems because water was scarce during critical growing periods. The Mangla Dam was the first of two major dams built under the Indus Basin Project. Construction began in 1961 and finished in 1965. Binnie & Partners, a British firm led by Geoffrey Binnie, designed the dam. A group of eight American firms called the Mangla Dam Contractors built it.

The scale of the project is truly enormous. The dam was built at a cost of one billion dollars. Funding came from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. The construction required massive excavation. Workers moved 120 million cubic yards of earth for the reservoir. They also used 142 million cubic yards of fill and 1.96 million cubic yards of concrete. In 2004, a raising project was started to increase the dam's capacity. This project cost Rs. 101.384 billion. It raised the dam height by 30 feet to a new total of 482 feet.

Raising the dam had significant effects on the local area. The increased height changed the reservoir's capacity. It also helped increase power generation. The project was expected to increase energy output by 12 percent annually. This would raise the installed capacity from 1,000 MW to 1,120 MW. However, this change also affected many people. More than 40,000 people living near the dam were affected by the raising project. The cost for compensation and resettlement was Rs. 70 billion. This included building New Mirpur City and several satellite towns like Islamgarh and Dadyal.

The construction of the dam also caused massive human displacement. When the original dam was built, over 280 villages and towns were submerged. This included the towns of Mirpur and Dadyal. Over 110,000 people were forced to leave their homes. This displacement led to a unique global connection. Many displaced people received work permits for the United Kingdom. Today, there are about 747,000 Mirpuris living in the UK. They make up about 70 percent of the British Pakistani community. Many live in northern cities like Bradford and Birmingham.