Tarbela << tahr BEHL uh >> Dam, in Pakistan, is one of the largest dams in the world. It contains 138,600,000 cubic yards (106,000,000 cubic meters) of rocks and earth packed firmly in layers over a watertight core. The dam is located on the Indus River near Rawalpindi. The Tarbela Dam was built primarily to provide irrigation water and hydroelectric power. The dam’s enormous reservoir stores water during the rainy summer months. The water is released through an extensive irrigation system in the dry winter months. The reservoir has a capacity of about 11 million acre-feet (14 billion cubic meters). The dam’s hydroelectric power plant generates 1,750 megawatts of electricity. The dam was completed in 1976.
