Brokopondo Reservoir

Where is Brokopondo Reservoir?

Countries on its shores: Suriname.

Largest body of water of: Suriname.

Middle of the lake: 4.80° N, 55.07° W

The story behind it

Suriname has no natural lake of this size, so its largest body of water is this reservoir. It was made when the Afobaka Dam was built across the Suriname River; the dam was finished in 1964. It is 54 metres tall, and together with smaller dams along the edge of the lake it is 12 kilometres long. The dam makes electricity. Most of it was used to turn a rock called bauxite into aluminium, and the rest went to the capital, Paramaribo. The rising water covered villages where thousands of people lived, and they had to move to new homes. Before the flooding, a rescue mission called Operation Gwamba saved almost 10 000 animals. The trees were not cut down, so a whole drowned forest still stands under the water. Since 2004, divers have been sawing the old tropical wood under water. How big the lake is depends on how high the water is.

Find it on the globe

Brokopondo Reservoir is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.