Afghanistan started implementation of water resources agreement with Iran

Almaty. April 19. Silkroadnews – The Afghan government commenced implementation of agreement with Iran on water resources use in the western provinces of the country, Minister of Energy and Water of Afghanistan, Ali Osmani stated, AfTAG wrote.

The agreement provides for the construction of the Kamal Khan hydropower plant to start within the next few days.
It is also planned to build another substation and hold further negotiations with the Iranian authorities regarding the areas affected by this substation operation.

According to the second article of the “Hirmand” (the Persian name of the Helmand River) water agreement, Afghanistan should allow Iran receiving no less than 26 cubic meters of water per second from its territory. With this the experts also note, the water level in the Helmand River has declined over the past few year, thus, this article is a subject to revision.

According to rough estimates, Afghanistan’s water resources amount to 70 billion cubic meters of water per year. About 70% of water goes uncontrollably to other countries not contributing to the development of Afghanistan’s economy and agriculture. Due to the rational use of these resources, thousands of hectares of farmland could be irrigated creating many new jobs in the agricultural sector.

The current agreement on the Helmand River was concluded back in 1973.