With a surface area of approximately 1,560 km2 (600 sq mi), depending on the current water level, it is one of the largest reservoirs in the world, covering nearly one percent of the country.

Contrary to the reservoir's long official name, it was quickly rechristened Brokopondomeer by Dutch-speaking locals, after the town of Brokopondo 3 km (2 mi) further downstream from where the dam was constructed.

[3] Most displaced residents were moved to new villages (Dutch: transmigratiedorpen) downstream from the dam, in many cases with the same names as the previously abandoned hamlets.

[5] The report notes that Brokopondo inundated roughly 160,000 hectares of biologically valuable tropical rainforest, while providing only 180 megawatts of capacity, equivalent to 889 ha/MW.

In 2002, Brokopondo Watra Wood International N.V. (BWWI) was given permission by Suralco to a start a pilot investigating the possibility to harvest the remaining trees from the lake.

The idea came from the late Paramaribo entrepreneur Orlando Lee On, who read about similar harvesting efforts in the Tucuruí Lake in Brazil when on a plane to Miami.