New York: Neighboring Pakistan has expressed worries about the Afghan Taliban’s ambitions to construct hydroelectric projects on a significant river in eastern Afghanistan.
On December 18, a representative from the Taliban’s Water and Energy Ministry said that the project’s survey and design had been fully completed. Matiullah Abid told a renowned international media outlet that the commencement of the dam building on the Kunar River is contingent upon the availability of funding.
The Taliban’s independent choice to construct the dam would be seen as a hostile action against Pakistan, according to a provincial minister from Pakistan.
Jan Achakzai, the communications minister of Balochistan, a province in the southwest, issued a cautionary statement about the various outcomes of a situation, emphasizing the likelihood of heightened tensions and the possibility of a conflict.
The Kunar River, spanning a distance of 480 kilometers, starts in the Hindu Kush Mountains in northern Afghanistan. It converges with the Kabul River and continues its course downstream into Pakistan.
Afghan Taliban and Pakistani hostilities might rise as a result of the Taliban’s ambitions to build a hydropower plant.
The longstanding partners have now broken up due to allegations that the Afghan extremist organization provided sanctuary to the terrorist group Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), who have been fighting an Islamabad-backed insurgency for many years.
Expelling hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees from Pakistan, closing important border crossings, and impeding Afghan transit goods in recent months are all examples of pressure methods that Pakistan is said to have employed to get the Taliban to cut connections with the TTP.
The precipitation required to grow food has dropped by 60% in much of Afghanistan recently. The need for additional water infrastructure has been intensified by factors like as the fast growth of Kabul’s population, widespread severe drought, and the threat of climate change.
However, there is no legislative framework in place to prevent significant confrontation between the states, and the politically complex terrain of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area is characterized by a complex web of Transboundary Rivers.
Work on the Shahtoot Dam is expected to begin shortly in the Chahar Asiab area of Kabul, on the Maidan, a tributary of the Kabul River. This is not surprising. The dam has the capacity to store 146 million cubic meters of drinkable water, which is enough to irrigate 4,000 hectares of land and provide 2 million people in Kabul.
It will also provide water for the residents of Deh Sabz, a brand-new city on Kabul’s outskirts. Afghanistan is now at a point where it can start developing its economy and generating energy from hydropower, after decades of catastrophic conflicts.
Concerns that the new dam may change the Kabul River’s flow and diminish water flows into Pakistan, perhaps severely limiting the country’s future availability to water, are fueling anxieties downstream in Pakistan over this ambitious construction.
The completion of the Shahtoot Dam and other planned dams might result in a 16 to 17 percent decrease in water flow, according to Pakistan’s ministry of water resources.
The Shahtoot Dam, which receives money from India, has the distinct ability to inflame regional tensions in addition to cutting off water supplies to Pakistan.
The Shahtoot Dam, which receives money from India, has the distinct ability to inflame regional tensions in addition to cutting off water supplies to Pakistan. The infrastructure of Afghanistan has received substantial funding from India.
The use of waterways that transcend international borders is a source of contention between and even within nations. However, international organizations like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have established mechanisms for the settlement of disputes between states.
Although Pakistan and Afghanistan share the Kabul River, no water sharing agreement exists between the two countries. In the 1970s, Afghanistan and Iran signed a treaty regarding the Helmand River, but no such arrangement exists between Afghanistan and other Central Asian states.
As it runs eastward via Kabul and Jalalabad, finally into Pakistan, the Hindu Kush-born Kabul River receives heavy flows from the Kunar and a number of smaller rivers that rise in Pakistan’s Chitral area. After merging with the Swat and its branches in Pakistan, the Kabul eventually flows into the Indus near Attock.
About 25 million people in the watershed rely on the Kabul River for their livelihood, and that number is projected to rise to 37 million by 2050.
The declaration that Pakistan would begin building the Shahtoot Dam on the Kabul River, which will cost $236 million, refocused the country’s attention.
Standing at a towering 92 meters, this water storage facility has the potential to augment irrigation by 146 million cubic meters. Its projected capability is to provide potable water to 2 million Kabul inhabitants and irrigate 4,000 hectares of land in the Charasiab area.
The Afghan government sees the building of these dams as essential since the majority of the rural population lacks access to safe drinking water, and just 5% of the population has better sanitation (with 1% of that number living in rural regions).
In comparison to Pakistan’s massive power generation, Afghanistan’s meager 300 MW is just 2% of the total.
In Afghanistan, only 28% of homes have access to electricity. Contrarily, in Charsada, this river supplies 85% of the irrigation water, in Peshawar, 80%, and in Nowshera, 47.5%. Millions more Pakistanis who live in and around the basin rely on this as their primary water supply for drinking as well.
Located downstream, the Warsak Dam provides 250 MW of power to the Peshawar Valley. It is possible to decrease water flow into the Warsak canal by 8-11 percent by constructing additional dams upstream.
Because it has the potential to cut off water supply to its northern regions and beyond, the Shahtoot River is a major source of concern for Pakistan.
In response, Afghanistan asserts that no water will be diverted into Pakistan as a result of this.
The water supply in eastern Afghanistan has been affected by Pakistan’s construction of many storage dams on the Chitral River. Neither side, however, is making enough of an effort to resolve these issues.
Using its water resources in accordance with the UN International Watercourses Convention would help Afghanistan avoid environmental damage and avoiding infringing on the rights of riparian nations, according to experts.
Rivers that flow between two countries are considered Border Rivers or non-national rivers under international law. Several states claim ownership of these. State boundaries are defined as “riparian” when rivers flow across them. There are states that are rightfully riparian to the river.
It is against the law for a state to interfere with an international river’s natural flow, even if doing so might benefit other riparian nations. It is a principle of international law that no state may modify the natural circumstances of the land of its neighboring state.
According to renowned jurist Oppenheim, this means that riparian states cannot unilaterally change the flow of international rivers or the boundary.
Typically, riparian governments resolve disputes over the usage and use of river flows by negotiating and concluding treaties.
Since there is no clear regulation on the usage of water from these rivers, disagreements are likely to emerge between them in the lack of a treaty.
The project’s launch must take into consideration the interests of governments that share a riverine border. If a river is a component of a drainage basin, then every state that borders the river has a right to a fair and reasonable portion of the basin’s water.
Many accords use this premise. Essentially, the most important thing to keep in mind when signing these kinds of treaties is to make sure that all parties involved are protected fairly.
In connection with it, the Law Association has approved a draft article regarding the uses of international river waters.
The article resolves that these rules, which address water pollution and floating timber, should be titled the Helsinki Rules on the Uses of Waters of International Rivers and Certain International Drainage Basins.
The rules also break new ground in certain areas. If nothing else, the proposed Articles show a mature understanding of the emerging issues surrounding rules governing the water of global rivers and drainage basins, and they might form the basis of a worldwide convention.
As the upper and lower riparian states of the Kabul River, respectively, Pakistan and Afghanistan must uphold the rights of the other. A “win-win” solution will be reached when water is used fairly and reasonably.
A framework that ensures no damage is caused to each other is provided by the United Nations Convention on Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, which was adopted in 1997.
The international law regulating the distribution of water has developed around more than 150 water accords, which is an important point to note. It is time for a peaceful resolution to the matter, and all parties should take advantage of the opportunity for negotiation.
