User:Dendana/Bazwadymy Dam

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Bazwadymy Dam
Official nameBazwadymy Uamoksosak
LocationAmaia
Construction began1992
Opening date1995
Operator(s)Western Electrical Company (Amaia)
Dam and spillways
Height92 metres (302 ft)
Length510 metres (1,670 ft)
Reservoir
CreatesBazwa Reservoir

The Bazwadymy Dam is the largest dam in Amaia, located in Bazwat State about 25 km northeast of the city of Gygnuum. It provides electricity to most of western Amaia, especially the Gynnyn area, and the reservoir it creates, the Bazwa Reservoir, provides water to most of Bazwat State and Gygnuum State. Construction began in 1992 after three years of intense controversy, and the dam was completed in March 1995.

History

The Bazwagyk River is the fourth-longest river entirely contained within the borders of Amaia, with its sources in the Central Amaian Range. Since prehistory it has been host to various peoples. During the nineteenth century the idea of building a dam on it was first proposed, but the plan was only seriously considered in the 1950s.

By the late 1980s, western Amaia was having serious troubles with electricity– the existing coal plants were severely outdated and could not keep up with demand. Reports circulated of entire families permanently without power due to its rising cost, and even the well-off were subject to power cuts without warning.

Additionally, the city of Gygnuum, located as it is at the intersection of three rivers, faced major flooding in spring 1988 as the snowmelt from the Central Amaian Range flooded rivers. The resulting damage was costly and hundreds of homes were severely damaged. The disruption of transportation infrastructure also severely impacted overland trade with Kaatkukia, as Gygnuum was the only major border crossing.

The Bazwadymy Dam was brought up again in the Amaian legislature in summer 1988 as a plan to control flooding in Gygnuum while providing additional electricity sustainably to the entire western quadrant of Amaia.

The major criticism of the plan was that the 10000 inhabitants of the lower Bazwagyk Valley would have to be resettled to a new location. Their livelihoods primarily revolved around agriculture and ranching, and thus there was great concern that the local industry would be ruined.

An additional political element was that the 30000 people in the Gygnuum area outnumbered the 10000 affected by the proposed dam, and the rights of the 10000 would not be respected within Gygnuum State.

As a response to the growing concerns on both sides, the Amaian Legislature in Geswi engineered a deal whereby the dam would be constructed in exchange for the partition of Gygnuum State into a new Gygnuum State consisting of Gygnuum and Vaamonsak in the west and north, and Bazwat State, consisting of Bazwat town in the east and the majority of the Bazwagyk River valley.

Ultimately, though, most of the resettled population from the flooded area was given only limited compensation, and while about half resettled within the newly-founded state, the other half dispersed within Amaia in search of new work.

Since the construction of the dam, Gygnuum has not faced flooding on the scale of 1988, and the western Amaian electricity supply has remained steady, though in part due to the renovation of coal plants in the last 2000s.