Upper Gotvand Dam

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The Upper Gotvand Dam is one property under construction dam project on the Karun in Iran, Khuzestan province. It is located 25 km north of the city Shushtar and 16 km from Gotvand. The project is the last planned dam on the Karun, on which several other dams have yet been built in recent decades.

Dam and Reservoir

The dam is 178 meters high and consists of a riprap with a clay core. It is the highest rockfill dam in Iran. The reservoir has a storage space of 4.53 billion cubic meters, making it the second largest in Iran after of Karkheh. He reaches to the foot of the Masjid -e- Soleiman dam. The dam is used for power generation, irrigation, flood control and tourism purposes.

The river diversion, which is required during construction in 1997 was put into operation. The project should be completed in 2009. The construction costs ( 800 million U.S. dollars) should be higher than that of all other sites in Iran. After the completion of the dam was started on 30 July 2011 with the filling of the reservoir.

Hydroelectric power station

The associated hydroelectric power plant has four turbines of 250 MW each a total of 1000 MW and generates an annual output volume of around 4500 GWh. The commissioning took place in the period from May to November 2012., The power plant can be expanded in a later phase of expansion to 2,000 MW. For water distribution serve three 1500 m long tunnel with a diameter of 9.5 m.

Archeology

During the construction archaeological sites were discovered. These are fortifications from the Parthian period (248 BC to 224 AD), the Sassanid period ( 224-651 AD) and the Islamic period from 651 AD

Dam accident in Gotvand

12 km below the site of the great Gotvand Dam, four kilometers above Gotvand, is an older distribution dam on Karun. The main building is a small 27-meter- high dam, which was built 1975-1977.

On a 22 -meter-high dam dam this distribution there was in February 1980 a dam break, as the earth dam was flooded on the left side of the river and broke because closures were blocked. Here, 200 people died.