The Tumarín Dam is a 60 meter tall, concrete

gravity dam A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation. Gravity dams are designed so that each section of the dam is ...

under construction on the

Río Grande de Matagalpa Río Grande de Matagalpa (, ''Awaltara'' in Miskito language, Miskito, ''Ucumulalí'' in Matagalpa language, Matagalpa) is a river of Nicaragua. Running from its source near Matagalpa to the Caribbean Sea in the northern part of the South Caribb ...

, just upstream of the town of Tumarín in the

South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region The South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region is one of two autonomous regions in Nicaragua. It was created along with the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region by the Autonomy Statute of 7 September 1987 through a division of the former Zelay ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

. It is located about east of San Pedro del Norte, where the Río Grande de Matagalpa meets the Tuma River. Aiming at generating power, it will be the largest hydropower dam in Nicaragua and one of the largest ones in

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

when completed. The power station located at the base of the dam will house three 84.33 MW

Kaplan turbine The Kaplan turbine is a propeller-type water turbine which has adjustable blades. It was developed in 1913 by Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan, who combined automatically adjusted propeller blades with automatically adjusted wicket gates to a ...

-generators for an installed capacity of 253 MW. The dam will create a reservoir covering 40 square kilometers. The project is being developed by Centrales Hidroelectricas de Nicaragua (CHN). Brazil's

Eletrobras Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras S.A. (commonly referred to as Electrobras, ) is a major Brazilian electric utilities company. The company's headquarters are located in Rio de Janeiro. It is Latin America's biggest power utility company, tenth la ...

was to fund the US$1.1 billion under a 20 to 30 year

build–operate–transfer Build–operate–transfer (BOT) or build–own–operate–transfer (BOOT) is a form of project delivery method, usually for large-scale infrastructure projects, wherein a private entity receives a concession (contract), concession from the public ...

(BOT) agreement. First announced in March 2010, preliminary construction (roads, bridges and foundation) was to begin in 2011, and operations on the plant were projected to start by February 2015, after a 4-year-long construction. However, there have been many delays. In 2016, the dam project was indefinitely suspended due to Eletrobras' economic and legal troubles, in connection with the Brazilian economic crisis. The project is still stalled as of January 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tumarin Dam Dams in Nicaragua Hydroelectric power stations in Nicaragua South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region Roller-compacted concrete dams Proposed hydroelectric power stations Proposed renewable energy power stations in Nicaragua