Pakistan has 1,016 dams according to the National Register of Dams, with 249 more under construction. Tarbela Dam on the Indus River is the largest, and Mangla Dam on the Jhelum is the second largest.
Most of those 1,016 structures are small check dams built to recharge groundwater, not reservoirs anyone has heard of. Roughly two dozen carry the country’s stored water and hydropower. This article lists the major dams of Pakistan with their river, province, type, height, storage capacity and completion year, answers the largest, highest, smallest and oldest questions separately because each has a different answer, and gives the 2026 status of every dam still under construction.
How Many Dams Are in Pakistan?
Pakistan has 1,016 completed dams. The National Register of Dams maintained under the Ministry of Water Resources gives the following provincial breakdown.
| Province or territory | Completed dams |
|---|---|
| Balochistan | 744 |
| Sindh | 160 |
| Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | 62 |
| Punjab | 36 |
| Islamabad Capital Territory | 4 |
| Azad Jammu and Kashmir | 3 |
| Federally managed (5 in KP, 2 in Gilgit-Baltistan) | 7 |
| Total | 1,016 |
Balochistan holds three quarters of the national total because provincial policy there favours large numbers of small delay action and check dams that slow flash floods and recharge aquifers. A further 249 dams are under construction, of which 189 are in Balochistan, 37 in Sindh and 23 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The International Commission on Large Dams classes any dam over 15 metres above its foundation as a large dam. Only a small fraction of Pakistan’s 1,016 dams meet that threshold, and the pages that circulate a figure of 150 dams are counting large dams rather than all dams.
List of Major Dams in Pakistan
The table below covers the completed dams that hold meaningful storage or generate power, sorted by completion year. Storage figures are gross capacity unless marked otherwise, and the Tarbela and Mangla rows are discussed in detail further down because sedimentation has changed both since commissioning.
| Dam | River | Province | Type | Height | Storage capacity | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hanna Lake | Urak stream | Balochistan | Masonry | 15 m (49 ft) | 1,330 acre feet | 1894 |
| Namal | Namal stream | Punjab | Earth fill | About 15 m | Lake of 5.5 sq km | 1913 |
| Warsak | Kabul | Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | Concrete gravity | 67 m (220 ft) | 76.5 million cubic metres | 1960 |
| Rawal | Korang | Islamabad | Earth fill | 40.7 m (133 ft) | 58.6 million cubic metres | 1962 |
| Baran | Kurram and Baran | Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | Earth fill | 39 m (128 ft) | 100,000 acre feet | 1962 |
| Mangla | Jhelum | Azad Jammu and Kashmir | Embankment | 147 m (482 ft) | 7.4 MAF live after 2009 raising | 1967 |
| Tarbela | Indus | Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | Earth and rock fill | 143 m (470 ft) | 11.62 MAF gross at design | 1976 |
| Hub | Hub | Balochistan | Earth fill | 48 m (157 ft) | 687,276 acre feet | 1981 |
| Khanpur | Haro | Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | Concrete gravity | 51 m (167 ft) | 79,980 acre feet | 1983 |
| Simly | Soan | Islamabad | Earth fill | 89.7 m (294 ft) | 35.5 million cubic metres | 1983 |
| Shahpur | Local stream | Punjab | Earth fill | 25.9 m (85 ft) | 17.7 million cubic metres | 1986 |
| Chotiari | Nara canal system | Sindh | Embankment | 26.3 m (86 ft) | 0.75 MAF | 2002 |
| Ghazi Barotha | Indus | Punjab | Barrage and channel | Low head | 22.5 million cubic metres | 2003 |
| Mirani | Dasht | Balochistan | Embankment | 39 m (128 ft) | 373 million cubic metres | 2006 |
| Sabakzai | Zhob | Balochistan | Embankment | 34.75 m (114 ft) | 32,700 acre feet | 2007 |
| Gomal Zam | Gomal | Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | RCC gravity | 133 m (436 ft) | 1.14 MAF | 2013 |
| Satpara | Satpara stream | Gilgit-Baltistan | Embankment | 39 m (128 ft) | 93,310 acre feet | 2013 |
| Darawat | Nari Baran | Sindh | Concrete gravity | 46 m (151 ft) | 150 million cubic metres | 2014 |
| Chahan | Sill Kus | Punjab | Earth fill | 46.6 m (153 ft) | 47.4 million cubic metres | 2018 |
| Diamer-Bhasha | Indus | Gilgit-Baltistan and KP | RCC gravity | 272 m (892 ft) | 8.1 MAF | Under construction, 2028 |
| Mohmand | Swat | Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | Concrete faced rock fill | 213 m (699 ft) | 1.29 MAF | Under construction, 2027 to 2028 |
| Nai Gaj | Gaj | Sindh | Embankment | 59 m (194 ft) | 300,000 acre feet | Under construction |
Which Is the Largest Dam in Pakistan?
Tarbela Dam is the largest dam in Pakistan. Tarbela holds the greatest structural volume, the greatest reservoir storage and the greatest installed power capacity of any dam in the country, and it is also the largest earth filled dam in the world and the second largest dam of any type by structural volume.
The supporting numbers are a gross storage capacity of 11.62 million acre feet at design, an installed generating capacity of 4,888 MW, and a crest 2,743 metres long. Mangla Dam ranks second on storage with about 7.4 MAF of live capacity after the 2009 raising project. Full specifications are set out in the article on Tarbela Dam on the Indus River.
Diamer-Bhasha will not displace Tarbela on storage when it opens, since its 8.1 MAF gross capacity sits below Tarbela’s design figure, but it will exceed Tarbela on height and match it closely on installed capacity at 4,500 MW.
Which Is the Highest Dam in Pakistan?
Mangla Dam is the highest completed dam in Pakistan at 147 metres, narrowly ahead of Tarbela Dam at 143 metres above the riverbed. Sources disagree on this ranking because they measure from different reference points. Tarbela stands 148 metres when measured from its deepest foundation rather than the riverbed, which puts it first on that basis.
Gomal Zam Dam is third at 133 metres and is the highest roller compacted concrete dam completed in Pakistan so far. Diamer-Bhasha at 272 metres will become both the highest dam in Pakistan and the highest roller compacted concrete dam in the world once complete. Mohmand Dam at 213 metres will rank as the fifth tallest concrete faced rock fill dam in the world.
Which Is the Smallest Dam in Pakistan?
Warsak Dam is the answer given in Pakistani examination papers for the smallest dam in Pakistan, because Warsak holds the least usable storage of the major dams at about 76.5 million cubic metres, a volume reduced further by silting since 1960. Warsak is not physically small at 67 metres tall, so the ranking is about reservoir volume rather than structure size.
Taken literally, the smallest dams in Pakistan are the hundreds of small check dams and delay action dams in Balochistan, many of which store only a few hundred acre feet and are not individually named in national registers. Hanna Lake dam near Quetta, at 15 metres and 1,330 acre feet, is the smallest structure in the table above.
Which Is the Oldest Dam in Pakistan?
Hanna Lake dam near Quetta in Balochistan is the oldest dam in Pakistan, built in 1894 during the British colonial period to supply water to the Quetta valley. Namal Dam in Mianwali District, Punjab, follows in 1913 and is the oldest dam in Punjab.
Warsak Dam, completed in 1960 on the Kabul River, is the oldest of Pakistan’s large modern dams and the first built after independence. Warsak was constructed under the Colombo Plan with financing from the Government of Canada.
Major Dams of Pakistan Explained
The sections below take each significant dam in turn, naming the river, the province and the reason the dam exists.
Tarbela Dam
Tarbela Dam is an earth and rock fill dam on the Indus River in Haripur District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, completed in 1976 after construction began in 1968. Tarbela was built under the Indus Basin Project to replace the water Pakistan lost to India under the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960.
Installed power capacity is 4,888 MW following the Fourth Extension commissioned in 2018, up from an original 3,478 MW. The Fifth Extension will add 1,530 MW for a total of 6,418 MW. Live storage has fallen from 9.68 MAF at commissioning to between about 5.7 and 6.8 MAF depending on the survey year, a loss of roughly a third to 40 percent to sedimentation.
Mangla Dam
Mangla Dam is an embankment dam on the Jhelum River in Mirpur District, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, built between 1961 and 1967 as the first storage dam of the Indus Basin Project. Mangla stands 147 metres high with a crest 3,140 metres long.
Live storage was 5.88 MAF at commissioning and fell to 4.6 MAF by 2004 through sedimentation. The Mangla Raising Project, completed in 2009, added 30 feet to the dam and lifted the conservation level from 1,202 feet to 1,242 feet, restoring and enlarging live storage to about 7.4 MAF. Installed capacity is being raised from 1,000 MW to 1,310 MW by the Mangla Refurbishment Project, with four of the ten units refurbished and running, two more due by the end of 2026 and full completion scheduled for 2030.
Warsak Dam
Warsak Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Kabul River about 20 kilometres northwest of Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, completed in 1960. Installed capacity is 243 MW from six units, four of 40 MW commissioned in the first phase and two of 41.48 MW added in 1980 and 1981. Warsak irrigates about 120,000 acres and is undergoing a second rehabilitation intended to restore the full 243 MW and add a further 50 MW.
Hub Dam
Hub Dam is an earth fill dam on the Hub River in Balochistan, on the border with Sindh about 56 kilometres from Karachi, completed in June 1981 after construction began in September 1963. Hub supplies municipal water to Karachi and irrigation water to Lasbela. Total capacity is 687,276 acre feet against a design figure near 857,000 acre feet, and the reservoir covers about 75 square kilometres. The surrounding area was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1974 and is a Ramsar listed wetland for migratory waterfowl.
Khanpur Dam
Khanpur Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Haro River at Khanpur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, about 50 kilometres from Islamabad, completed in 1983 after fifteen years of construction. Khanpur is 51 metres high and stores 79,980 acre feet, supplying drinking water to Islamabad and Rawalpindi and irrigation water to Attock and Swabi. Khanpur Lake is used for kayaking, cliff diving and boating.
Rawal Dam and Simly Dam
Rawal Dam is an earth fill dam on the Korang River in the Islamabad Capital Territory, completed in 1962, standing 40.7 metres high with 58.6 million cubic metres of storage. Rawal has supplied Rawalpindi with drinking water since it was built and its lake is the recreational centre of the Margalla foothills.
Simly Dam on the Soan River, also in the Islamabad Capital Territory, was completed in 1983 and is the taller of the pair at 89.7 metres. Simly is the main drinking water source for Islamabad itself.
Mirani Dam
Mirani Dam is an embankment dam on the Dasht River in Kech District, Balochistan, completed in 2006 and built by WAPDA to irrigate the fertile Kech valley and supply Turbat. Storage capacity is 373 million cubic metres. Mirani is frequently described as having the largest flood protection volume of any dam in the world at 588,690 cubic hectometres, a claim that originates in International Commission on Large Dams tabulations.
Sabakzai Dam
Sabakzai Dam is an embankment dam on the Zhob River in Zhob District, Balochistan, inaugurated on 3 September 2007. Sabakzai stands 34.75 metres high with 32,700 acre feet of storage and is ranked seventh in the world by flood stock volume at 23,638 cubic hectometres. The dam irrigates agricultural land around Zhob in a district that receives little reliable rainfall.
Gomal Zam Dam
Gomal Zam Dam is a roller compacted concrete gravity dam on the Gomal River, a tributary of the Indus, in South Waziristan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Construction began in August 2001 and the dam was inaugurated on 12 September 2013, though the project was first approved in 1963 and abandoned after the 1965 war. Gomal Zam is 133 metres high, stores 1.14 million acre feet, and generates 17.4 MW from two Francis turbines.
Satpara Dam
Satpara Dam is an embankment dam on the Satpara stream near Skardu in Gilgit-Baltistan, completed in 2013. Satpara stores 93,310 acre feet, supplies about 3.2 million gallons of water a day to Skardu, irrigates surrounding farmland, and generates 17.36 MW that serves roughly 30,000 households. Satpara Lake above the dam is one of the most visited sites in Baltistan.
Darawat Dam and Namal Dam
Darawat Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Nari Baran River in Jamshoro District, Sindh, completed in 2014 at 46 metres high with 150 million cubic metres of gross storage, of which 110 million cubic metres is active. Darawat irrigates about 25,000 acres of previously barren land.
Namal Dam in Namal Valley, Mianwali District, Punjab, dates from 1913 and forms Namal Lake across about 5.5 square kilometres. Namal was built for irrigation and now functions mainly as a wetland for migratory birds.
Which Dams Are Under Construction in Pakistan?
Four significant projects are under construction as of 2026, and none of them is financed by the United States despite claims still circulating on older pages.
Diamer-Bhasha Dam
Diamer-Bhasha Dam is a roller compacted concrete gravity dam on the Indus River straddling Diamer District in Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. At 272 metres it will be the highest roller compacted concrete dam in the world, with 4,500 MW of installed capacity, 8.1 MAF of gross storage and irrigation for 1.23 million acres. Roller compacted concrete placement on the main dam was scheduled to begin in early 2026 after abutment and foundation excavation, and completion is targeted for 2028. Funding comes from the Government of Pakistan with Chinese contracting partners.
Mohmand Dam
Mohmand Dam is a concrete faced rock fill dam on the Swat River in Mohmand District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, standing 213 metres high with 1.29 MAF of gross storage and 800 MW of installed capacity. WAPDA reported in January 2026 that work continues on ten key sites, spillway construction is about 70 percent complete, and the main dam rock fill has reached 392 metres above sea level. Power generation is scheduled to begin in 2027, with some WAPDA statements putting it in early 2028.
Nai Gaj Dam
Nai Gaj Dam is an embankment dam on the Gaj River about 65 kilometres northwest of Dadu in Sindh, standing 59 metres high with 300,000 acre feet of gross storage. Construction began in 2012 and has been repeatedly suspended over funding, most recently in March 2025, with an expected opening pushed to June 2027.
Neelum-Jhelum Is Not a Dam
Neelum-Jhelum is a run of river hydropower project rather than a storage dam, and listing it among Pakistan’s dams is a common error. The 969 MW plant diverts water from the Neelum River through a 48 kilometre headrace tunnel to a powerhouse on the Jhelum, 42 kilometres south of Muzaffarabad, and it stores almost nothing. Generation has been suspended since a tunnel failure in May 2024, the Auditor General of Pakistan declared the project a failure in a performance audit, and Neelum-Jhelum was excluded from the projected power purchase price for 2026.
Why Does Pakistan Need More Dams?
Pakistan can store only about 30 days of water against an international benchmark of 120 days. National live storage across all reservoirs has fallen from 16.26 MAF in 1976 to about 13.68 MAF as silt fills Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma faster than new capacity is added.
Storage matters because Pakistan is an agricultural country whose crops depend on releasing summer river flow during the winter rabi season. The canal network that distributes those releases is described in the article on the irrigation system of Pakistan. Without reservoir storage the same water reaches the sea unused during the flood months and is missing when wheat needs it.
The Kalabagh Dam project on the Indus at Mianwali remains the largest unbuilt proposal and the most contested. Punjab supports construction while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh oppose it over flooding and downstream flow, and the deadlock has held since the 1980s.
Frequently Asked Questions About Dams in Pakistan
How many dams are there in Pakistan?
Pakistan has 1,016 completed dams according to the National Register of Dams, plus 249 under construction. Balochistan holds 744 of them, most being small check dams for groundwater recharge.
Which is the biggest dam in Pakistan?
Tarbela Dam on the Indus River is the biggest dam in Pakistan by storage, structural volume and power capacity. Tarbela is also the largest earth filled dam in the world.
Which is the highest dam in Pakistan?
Mangla Dam at 147 metres is the highest completed dam, just ahead of Tarbela at 143 metres above the riverbed. Diamer-Bhasha at 272 metres will take that title on completion.
Which is the oldest dam in Pakistan?
Hanna Lake dam near Quetta, built in 1894, is the oldest dam in Pakistan. Namal Dam in Mianwali dates from 1913, and Warsak Dam from 1960 is the oldest large modern dam.
Which dam produces the most electricity in Pakistan?
Tarbela Dam produces the most, with 4,888 MW of installed capacity rising to 6,418 MW once the Fifth Extension is on the grid. Mangla follows at 1,000 MW rising to 1,310 MW.
Last Thoughts on Dams in Pakistan
The count of 1,016 dams flatters the position. Two structures, Tarbela and Mangla, hold most of the useful storage, and both were finished more than half a century ago. Everything built since has been either small, like Mirani and Sabakzai, or focused on power rather than water, like Ghazi Barotha and Neelum-Jhelum.
That is why the numbers in the table above move in two directions at once. Installed hydropower capacity keeps rising as extensions are drilled into existing dams, while live storage keeps falling as silt occupies the reservoirs behind them. Diamer-Bhasha in 2028 and Mohmand in 2027 will be the first genuine additions to national storage since Mangla was raised in 2009, and even with both complete Pakistan’s carryover capacity reaches only about 45 days.
