The Brokopondo Reservoir, officially named Professor Doctor Ingenieur W. J. van Blommestein Meer , and also called the Brokopondostuwmeer , is a large reservoir in Suriname . It is named after the Surakarta -born Dutch hydrological engineer Willem Johan van Blommestein [ nl ] . With a surface area of approximately 1,560 km (600 sq mi), depending on the current water level, it is one of the largest reservoirs in the world, covering nearly one percent of the country.
19-471: The reservoir was created by constructing Afobaka Dam across the Suriname River between 1961 and 1964. The dam spanning the river is 54 m (177 ft) tall, and is built near the small town of Afobaka . Contrary to the reservoir's long official name, it was quickly rechristened Brokopondomeer by Dutch-speaking locals, after the town of Brokopondo 3 km (2 mi) further downstream from where
38-470: A gravity dam is built to support the weight of the dam and all the water, it is quite flexible in that it absorbs a large amount of energy and sends it into the Earth's crust. It needs to be able to absorb the energy from an earthquake because, if the dam were to break, it would send a mass amount of water rushing downstream and destroy everything in its way. Earthquakes are the biggest danger to gravity dams and that
57-432: A problem, as they can scour dam foundations. A disadvantage of gravity dams is that their large concrete structures are susceptible to destabilising uplift pressures relative to the surrounding soil. Uplift pressures can be reduced by internal and foundation drainage systems. During construction, the exothermic curing of concrete can generate large amounts of heat. The poorly-conductive concrete then traps this heat in
76-512: Is an embankment dam with a main gravity dam section on the Suriname River near Afobaka in Brokopondo District of Suriname . The primary purpose of the dam is to generate hydroelectric power and it supports a 180 MW power station. In 1958, Suriname Aluminum Company LLC ( Suralco [ nl ] ), a subsidiary of Alcoa , gained an agreement with the Suriname government to build
95-458: The 2003 World Bank report Good Dams, Bad Dams , the Brokopondo dam ( Afobaka Dam ) flooded significantly more hectares of land per megawatt generated than any other large hydropower project analyzed. The report notes that Brokopondo inundated roughly 160,000 hectares of biologically valuable tropical rainforest, while providing only 180 megawatts of capacity, equivalent to 889 ha/MW. For comparison
114-467: The controversial Three Gorges Dam in China flooded 6 hectares per megawatt, providing 18,000 megawatts while flooding an area smaller than Brokopondo. The global average for all large hydroelectric dams constructed to date is about 60 ha/MW, according to the same report. As a cost reducing measure, the trees of the area were not cut before they started to submerge. This caused problems for shipping activity in
133-442: The dam primarily arises from the range of normal force angles viably generated by the foundation. Also, the stiff nature of a gravity dam structure endures differential foundation settlement poorly, as it can crack the dam structure. The main advantage to gravity dams over embankments is the scour -resistance of concrete, which protects against damage from minor over-topping flows. Unexpected large over-topping flows are still
152-406: The dam structure for decades, expanding the plastic concrete and leaving it susceptible to cracking while cooling. It is the designer's task to ensure this does not occur. Gravity dams are built by first cutting away a large part of the land in one section of a river, allowing water to fill the space and be stored. Once the land has been cut away, the soil has to be tested to make sure it can support
171-516: The dam to power an aluminium smelter . Construction began in 1961 and it was completed in 1964. About 75% of power generated is used for processing aluminum, the rest is used in Paramaribo downstream. The power station was operational in 1965 but the very large reservoir, Brokopondo Reservoir , was not completely filled until 1971. Greenhouse gases emitted from the reservoir resulted in poor water quality for decades. Highly acidic water also damaged
190-474: The dam was constructed. The length of the dam, including secondary dams along the margins of the reservoir, is 12 km ( 7 + 1 ⁄ 2 mi). The watershed which feeds the reservoir is 12,200 km (4,700 sq mi) in area. The reservoir was put into service in 1965, but did not reach its optimal water level until 1971. Due to the great area of the reservoir, villages home to approximately 5,000 people had to be abandoned. The largest of these,
209-532: The electricity produced by the dam was used to power Suriname's capital city, Paramaribo . Other advantages of the dam's construction, besides a boost to the aluminum industry, have included the development of the country's inland areas and the surrounding forests, the pushing back of the saltwater boundary in the Suriname River, better irrigation capabilities during times of drought , an increase in tourist activity, and an increase in ease of fishing. According to
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#1732844924519228-607: The first shipment of wood from the lake to Europe and the United States in June 2005. The Brokopondo lake wood is marketed in Germany as "Stauseeholz" (English: Reservoir wood). In November 2010, Jens Hahne filmed a documentary about the harvesting activities for the Franco-German channel Arte . This documentary was broadcast on Arte on 22 January 2011. Afobaka Dam The Afobaka Dam
247-462: The foundation's support strength: the Westergaard, Eulerian, and Lagrangian approaches. Once the foundation is suitable to build on, construction of the dam can begin. Usually gravity dams are built out of a strong material such as concrete or stone blocks, and are built into a triangular shape to provide the most support. The most common classification of gravity dams is by the materials composing
266-513: The lake. In 2002, Brokopondo Watra Wood International N.V. (BWWI) was given permission by Suralco to a start a pilot investigating the possibility to harvest the remaining trees from the lake. The idea came from the late Paramaribo entrepreneur Orlando Lee On, who read about similar harvesting efforts in the Tucuruí Lake in Brazil when on a plane to Miami. In 2004 harvesting began, which resulted in
285-544: The power station's turbines. Gravity dam A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation. Gravity dams are designed so that each section of the dam is stable and independent of any other dam section. Gravity dams generally require stiff rock foundations of high bearing strength (slightly weathered to fresh), although in rare cases, they have been built on soil. Stability of
304-476: The soon-to-be lake bed. The dam was constructed in order to provide electricity to plants involved in the processing of bauxite into alumina , and later into purer aluminum metal. These plants were operated by Suralco [ nl ] , the Suriname Aluminum Company , which is a daughter company of Alcoa . About 75% of the dam's electricity was used to power these plants, and the portion of
323-408: The structure: Composite dams are a combination of concrete and embankment dams . Construction materials of composite dams are the same used for concrete and embankment dams. Gravity dams can be classified by plan (shape): Gravity dams can be classified with respect to their structural height: Gravity dams are built to withstand some of the strongest earthquakes . Even though the foundation of
342-400: The village of Ganzee , had approximately 1,200 residents. Most displaced residents were moved to new villages (Dutch: transmigratiedorpen) downstream from the dam, in many cases with the same names as the previously abandoned hamlets. The most important being Klaaskreek , Nieuw Ganzee , and Marshallkreek . A separate government operation, "Operation Gwamba," was conducted to save animals from
361-407: The weight of the dam and the water. It is important to make sure the soil will not erode over time, which would allow the water to cut a way around or under the dam. Sometimes the soil is sufficient to achieve these goals; however, other times it requires conditioning by adding support rocks which will bolster the weight of the dam and water. There are three different tests that can be done to determine
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