Kaptai Dam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kaptai Dam (Bengali: কাপ্তাই বাঁধ) is located on the Karnaphuli River at Kaptai, 65 km upstream from Chittagong in Rangamati District, Bangladesh. It is an earthfill embankment dam with a reservoir (known as Kaptai Lake) water storage capacity of 11,000 km². The primary purpose of the construction of the dam and reservoir was to generate hydroelectric power. Construction was completed in 1962.[1][2]
Contents |
[edit] Description
The earthen dam is 670 meters long and 45.7 meters wide with a 16-gated spillway on the left side of the main dam. The catchment area of the reservoir is 11,000 km². The dam has provided significant flood control as well as power generation.[1] The construction of the dam submerged 655 km² area. This included 220 km² of cultivable land, 40 percent of the cultivable land in the area, and displaced 18,000 families and 100,000 tribal people, of which 70% were Chakma. The dam also flooded the original Rangamati town and other structures.[3]
[edit] Disadvantages
Local inhabitants living in the storage reservoir area who lost their homes and farmland due to flooding were not compensated. More than 40,000 Chakma tribals emigrated to India. The scarcity of land is consider a main cause of the continuing conflict in the area today.[3]
The building of the dam and reservoir also caused destruction of wilderness and loss of wildlife and wildlife habitats.[1]
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c Dam - Kaptai Dam. Retrieved on 2007-02-01.
- ^ Kaptai Dam Structure. Retrieved on 2007-02-01.
- ^ a b The construction of the Kaptai dam uproots the indigenous population (1957-1963). Retrieved on 2007-02-01.
