Dahla dam project Afghanistan

One of the most under-reported Canadian projects in Afghanistan will be helping to provide benefits for a huge number of locals. This is the Dahla Dam project, already providing much-needed water to long-parched lands. In the Globe and Mail:

It appears the money and years of hard work are finally starting to bear fruit, quite literally.

For the first time in decades, the Dahla Dam is channelling badly needed water into the Arghandab district's once-parched fields. During a recent flyover of the dam and its surrounding environs, lush green orchards resembling those in the Okanagan Valley could be seen for miles.

“To see the amount of green that's there now and further inland is really encouraging,” federal International Development Minister Bev Oda said at the time.

“When you can visually see progress, it's very rewarding and I think Canadians will have a very good news story when we complete the work that we're doing.”

The Dahla Dam is the largest dam in Kandahar province and the second largest in Afghanistan. The dam, 34 kilometres north of Kandahar city, was first built in the 1950s.

But three decades of war have taken their toll.

“Afghanistan has gone through 30 years of warfare, and there's been significant degradation in the downstream systems that results in 70 per cent of the water from the reservoir being wasted,” Rowswell said.

Once finished, the project is expected to double the amount of irrigated land in the Arghandab River basin — a godsend in a country where food is often in short supply.