‘Insecurity, Floods’ Hamper Bakhshabad Dam Project in Farah

It has been a year since the contract was signed for construction of Bakhshabad water dam in western Farah province but work on the project yet to begin.

Bakhshabad dam is one of the important economic projects in Afghanistan that will be built on Farah Rud River.

Last year, the government signed the contract worth $4.5 million with an Italian firm to build the dam. The minister of Water and Energy, Ali Ahmad Osmani says insecurity and floods have delayed the dam’s initial works.

“Since last few weeks, we started working on the geological and topographic survey [mapping of the natural location] in the dam.”

“After ending the diversion tunnel’s design work, we aim to start working on the construction of the tunnel as well, which takes a long time, so it could pave the way for building the frame of the dam.”

The dam has the capacity to generate 27 megawatts of electricity and irrigate 104 thousand hectares of land. With 81 meters of height, it will be capable of reserving 1,360 million cubic meters of water.

The dam, meanwhile, would be effective for expansion of the forests and handling floods in the province.

The Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock Ministry spokesman, Lotfullah Rashed said: “The completion of the dam will be a significant step to irrigate about 100 thousand hectares of land, and it will play an important role on the crops being obtained from these areas next year.”