It was built between 1959 and 1963 during the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, with contacting an Italian consortium and is owned by the Khuzestan Water & Power Authority.

[3] The dam is 203 metres (666 ft) high, making it one of the highest in the country, and has a reservoir capacity of 3,340,000,000 m3 (2,710,000 acre⋅ft).

At the time of construction the Dez Dam was Iran's biggest development project.

It has an associated 520 MW power station and its reservoir helps irrigate up to 80,500 ha (199,000 acres) of farmland.

[4][5][6] The dam's current problem is the annual loss of reservoir capacity due to the erosion of soil in upstream areas.