Afghanistan: Dam Project Promises Water – but Also Conflict – for Dusty Afghan Border Lands

Mar 22, 2017 | Sune Engel Rasmussen, Guardian
View Original

The Afghan government plans to construct a dam to boost agriculture and livelihoods in a region where one of the main paths to profit is smuggling – of drugs as well as people. One of Afghanistan’s many untapped resources, water has real potential. Of its 8m hectares of fertile land, Afghanistan cultivates only 2m. It imports 80% of its electricity. The dam, called Kamal Khan, could irrigate 175,000 hectares of land, the size of Greater London, according to project manager Mohammad Nabi.