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Afghanistan water sources use by neighboring countries

The fears of a security breakdown in Afghanistan boil the larger possibility of an economic collapse. The country’s revenues seem abysmal, and the mismanagement of billions of dollars in aid has turned it entirely dependent on foreign donations and the presence of foreign troops.
With Afghanistan being largely an agricultural country, investment in the water sector should have been a natural priority for sustainable economic development. Yet, that is not the case. In the Afghanistan National Development Strategy, a framework for allocating international aid, water does not figure as a core development sector. Only 5 percent of development has gone into the water sector during the past decade.
The Ministry of Water and Energy says that Afghanistan water resources reaches to 57 billion cubic meters which the most parts of it use by neighboring countries.
Along the Afghanistan’s borders, villagers see their water flow into the neighboring countries without being able to use it for their own local fields. The scarcity of water has led to tensions between tribes and villages.
The ministry if water declared that the continuation of insecurity caused Afghanistan fails to effectively use its water from the construction of dams and other projects.
Officials in the ministry noted that the residents of the country must cooperate with the government in providing the security of water and electricity projects.
“The construction of dams takes long time and in some cases the works have not been done properly and on time. In addition, the main problem is insecurity that cause the projects face a deadlock,” Ali Ahmad Osmani, minister of Water and Energy said.
One of Afghanistan’s missed opportunities in the last decade was its failure to legislate a comprehensive water law. Existing law does not define water rights.
Land owners are also owners of water and landless farmers have no rights to water. The water management institutions are highly ineffective.
The lack of a database of natural resources and the limited ability of the government to collect data is another challenge and a major obstacle to planning and development.
Afghanistan has a population of 29 million, with 79% of the population living in rural areas. Only 27% of its population has access to improved water sources, and it goes down to 20% in rural areas, the lowest percentage in the world.
The numbers get even worse when you look at the percentage of people with access to improved sanitation facilities. With the numbers at 5% nationwide, and only 1% in rural areas, Afghanistan again ranks the worst in the world.
In Kabul, the capital, with a population of 6 million, 80% of the people lack access to safe drinking water, and 95% lack access to improved sanitation facilities.
Analysts say that reaching the safe driniking water is another challenges of Afghanistan residents which the people are suffering from.
Water is a collective issue for Afghanistan and its neighbors. Any solution should therefore be multinational. Nations involved in Afghanistan, in particular US-led forces, should avoid politicizing this problem as it is so vital to the future of Afghanistan and the region as a whole.
Investment decisions should be based not on efforts to deprive neighboring countries of water but on avoiding waste and improving utilization of resources.
Without regional cooperation, Afghanistan will be faced with deeper and unresolvable challenges that will be even more difficult to solve after most international forces leave in 2014.

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IEA signs deals worth 365m AFN for cell phone services in remote areas

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and private telecommunication companies on Sunday signed contracts worth 365 million afghanis to provide telecommunication services in remote areas.
The contract was signed in the presence of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund, Economic Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mawolvi Najibullah Haqqani.
Speaking at the meeting Baradar said the Islamic Emirate considers the service necessary for the nation and tries its best to provide reliable and high quality telecommunications services to the people.
“Islamic Emirate has provided a good basis for investment in Afghanistan and appreciates the efforts of all those national businessmen and investors who invest for the economic growth of the country,” Baradar said.
The contracts signed were with Afghan Wireless Communications Company (AWCC) and MTN.
The two companies will establish 33 new sites in Kandahar, Nuristan, Badakhshan, Uruzgan, Zabul, Kunar, Nangarhar and Kabul provinces. These will be in remote areas where people do not have access to telecommunication services.
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India says Afghan embassy issue an ‘internal matter’

After reports of corruption and the move by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) to take control of Afghanistan’s embassy in New Delhi, the Indian government has said the issue is an internal matter which does not involve them.
Representatives of Afghan refugees living in India have accused officials at the Afghanistan embassy in Delhi, including the ambassador, of corruption. The embassy denies the allegations.
Indian media have also reported that the embassy resisted IEA’s move to formally take control of the embassy.
Arindam Bagchi, India’s foreign ministry spokesman, said in a press conference that the issue is an internal matter of the embassy.
“From our perspective, this is an internal matter of the Afghan Embassy, and we hope that they would resolve it internally,” Bagchi said.
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UNSC to hold meeting on Afghanistan’s situation

The United Arab Emirates’ Permanent Representative to the UN Lana Nusseibeh said the UN Security Council will hold a meeting on Afghanistan later this month.
Nusseibeh, who is currently President of the Security Council, said: “We will hold a comprehensive meeting on Afghanistan’s situation on June 21.
“Our focus will be concentrated on Afghanistan’s situation, women’s rights in particular, over which all the members of the Security Council have agreed,” she added.
On Thursday, Nusseibeh told media in New York that the UN Security Council will continue working on the issues of Afghanistan, especially on women’s rights.
According to the UAE ambassador, Fraidoon Oglu, the UN Special Coordinator for Afghanistan Affairs will provide a comprehensive report about the situation in the country to the Security Council in November.
This comes after Fox News reported on Friday that several US Senators have proposed a bill to tighten sanctions against IEA officials in response to human rights violations in Afghanistan.
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