The purpose of opening the floodgates to send millions of tons of silt downstream of the Yellow River. Bystanders are dwarfed as they stand watching a tremendous rush of water gushing through gaps in a dam in China, part of a carefully-choreographed operation to remove silt from the Yellow River in Luoyang, in the Henan province. This annual operation sees more than 30 million tonnes of silt sent downstream a year, with more than 390 million tonnes shifted this way over the last 13 years.
The Xiaolangdi Dam (小浪底) is a dam in Jiyuan, Henan Province, China, and impounds the Yellow River. The facility is located about 20 km to the northwest of Luoyang. It has a total installed capacity of 1,836 MW and generates up to 5.1 TWh annually with the help of six 306 MW turbines. The dam stands 154 m tall and 1,317 m wide, and cost US$3.5 billion to build. Constructed in 1994, Xiaolangdi Dam regulates water and silt flow annually. The Dam is a multi-function project designed for flood control, ice control, dredging, industrial and municipal water supply, and hydroelectric power generation.
