Replenishing Afghanistan’s Arghandab River Valley

Water is life. And for most of the one million individuals living in the hot and dusty province of Kandahar, life depends on water from the Arghandab River. For farmers in this largely agricultural province, water is a source of livelihood. The lack of it hampers economic growth and can push people into poverty.

In the 1950s, the United States built the Dahla Dam on the Arghandab River, along with a network of canals, irrigating abundant crops of melons, wheat, grapes, and pomegranates in this formerly arid terrain. The dam is located in the heart of the province and is the second largest dam in Afghanistan; eighty percent of Kandahar’s population lives along the contours of the irrigation system. Today, because years of disrepair have left the dam and irrigation system functioning at a much-reduced capacity, Kandahar’s agricultural economy is producing a fraction of its potential.

For centuries, the Arghandab Valley had been known as the breadbasket of Afghanistan. The region has the potential to be the most productive agricultural area in the country, with the greatest scope for creating food surpluses for processing and export. Repairing the system and restoring irrigation in the valley is one of the highest priorities of the Afghan government. With Canada’s support, this undertaking will boost agricultural production, improve food availability, and provide much-needed employment to an economically impoverished region.

By strengthening the capacity of the Afghan government to deliver basic services such as creating jobs for Kandaharis and repairing infrastructure, Canada is helping reduce incentives to join the opium economy and is discouraging recruitment into the insurgency. The repair of the dam and irrigation system project definitely matches these objectives. At the same time, it responds to the recommendation of the Independent Panel on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan by directly addressing the greatest needs of the Afghan people. It is also a project that is clearly identified with Canada. This signature project is expected to generate up to 10,000 seasonal jobs in the construction and agricultural sectors and to improve irrigation for thousands of hectares of land.

Canada is investing up to $50 million over the next two years to reach these goals. Repairs include replacing generators, repairing water valves, and fixing gates to improve control over the flow of water from the Arghandab River into the 40-kilometre network of canals. Downstream, a major desilting of the canals will ensure that the increased water flow will reach individual Kandaharis.“Studies show that as much as 60 percent of the water supply from the reservoir is wasted because the flow of water cannot at the present time be effectively controlled,” notes Chantal Ruel, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) project manager with the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team (KPRT). “Also, over the decades, sediment in this very dusty climate has collected in the bottom of the reservoir. This has further reduced the capacity of the reservoir by up to 30 percent.”

An Arghandab River sub-basin water management body will be established to manage the area’s water system in consultation with the local population. Ongoing training of Kandahar’s farmers in water management and new crop production techniques will form a critical component of this project.

The First Steps: Paving the Way

This type of large-scale undertaking requires a series of consecutive steps, including improvements related to bridge access, canals, and irrigation systems. Already, some of these have been completed, and now the largest component of the project is about to be tackled—the actual rehabilitation of the dam.

These preliminary steps are fundamental to the project’s success. In September 2008, the Dahla Dam and irrigation system signature project crossed a great hurdle when the first contract was awarded for the replacement of a rickety, one-lane I-beam suspension bridge that crosses a spillway and the widening and paving of the road which will handle the large vehicles and heavy loads destined for the dam site. The 21-metre long, 4-metre wide, reinforced-concrete girder bridge and roadway are now complete and open to traffic.

Sergeant Brian Highfield, member of the KPRT’s Specialist Engineering Team and project manager for the bridge construction, outlines the importance of this preliminary step. “Before the dam can be worked on, the current bridge had to be replaced with one that can support the weight and physical size of the heavy equipment needed to do the repairs to the dam.”

The bridge project alone, valued at approximately $330,000, provided employment for about 50 local Afghans. With the roadway now complete, the big step of rehabilitating the dam and the irrigation works downstream can begin.

“The bigger effort for the dam and irrigation system is replacing the micro-turbine and generator that services the dam and the adjacent camp, repairing water valves, fixing gates to control the flow of water from the Arghandab River into the canal system, and repairing the canals,” notes Ruel, who has been steering the overall project since its inception.

Moving Forward: Not Just Construction

But the project is not only about construction. CIDA officials, working with their counterparts in the Government of Afghanistan and SNC-Lavalin/Hydrosult, will establish the Arghandab sub-basin water management body. This body will take the lead in managing the area’s water-system in consultation with local stakeholders. At the same time, farmers will receive training in water management and new crop production techniques. Ensuring that any project meets the needs of the local population is a time-proven component of success.

“While we work on the dam, we have to focus on farmers: to provide them with credit, provide them with some research, plant protection, organizing them in farmers’ groups and producers’ groups, invest in some value-added facilities, like packing, processing—fruit juice [and] that kind of stuff—so that Kandahari farmers can make more money,” says Afghanistan's new agriculture minister, Asif Rahimi.

“Pomegranates and saffron—these are the things that can compete with the poppy in terms of value because they are very high-value crops.”

Rejuvenating the Horn of Plenty

The province of Kandahar has great potential. Once a vibrant and profitable agricultural economy, this sector may once again become a primary source of food and income. For the first time in years, the production of wheat in Afghanistan has outstripped that of poppies. Though the rehabilitation of the dam and its irrigation system is only in its early stages, it is sending a much-needed message of hope to Kandaharis.

And as Agriculture Minister Rahimi says: “Investing in agriculture is basically building the future of Afghanistan.”