Progress and prospects in Soviet hydro engineering

The Soviet Union has the second largest installed hydro capacity in the world, and a vast amount of potential still remains to be exploited. Most resources in the European part of the country have already been tapped, but many major schemes are either already under construction or planned on rivers in the Central and East Asian parts of the USSR, for example on the Angara, Vakhsh and Yenisey rivers. Some of these projects are described in other articles in this issue. In this article an overview is presented of present activities in the field of hydropower and dams.