Syllabus section – economy

Why in news?

Indian-built dams in Afghanistan are causing trouble with downstream states Iran and Pakistan.

About:

• India is expected to begin work on the $236 million Shahtoot Dam project on the Kabul River in Afghanistan.

• To be built on the Maidan River (an upper tributary of the Kabul River) in the ChaharAsiab district in Kabul province.

• The Shahtoot Dam will have a storage capacity of 147 million cubic meters (MCM) of water.

• It is designed to meet the drinking water and sanitation needs of roughly 2 million of Kabul’s roughly 6 million residents

• It will irrigate about 400 hectares of agricultural land in ChaharAsiab and Khairabad districts in Kabul province.

Kabul River

• The 700-km-long Kabul River originates in the Hindu Kush Mountains in central Afghanistan.

• It flows eastward past the Afghan cities of Kabul, Surobhi, and Jalalabad. East of Jalalabad,

• It is joined by its main tributary, the Kunar River, which originates in Pakistan, where it is known as the River Chitral.

• Afghanistan and Pakistan are thus upstream and downstream basin states with regard to the Kabul River.

• After crossing into Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the Kabul River runs past Peshawar and Nowshera and joins the mighty Indus River near Attock, northwest of Islamabad.

• It is the sole source of drinking water for almost 7 million Afghans and Pakistanis.

Source- The diplomat