After India, now Afghanistan can also block Pakistan’s water supply. Taliban Deputy Information Minister Mujahid Farahi has announced that the Ministry of Water and Energy has received instructions from Taliban’s supreme leader Sheikh Hibatullah Akhundzada to build a dam on the Kunar River without any delay. This river flows in Pakistan and is a major source of water for Pakistan.
Afghanistan is preparing to limit the water of Pakistan’s rivers.
According to the Afghan Information Ministry, Taliban-ruled Afghanistan is planning to build dams and limit water from Pakistan’s rivers. The Taliban’s supreme leader Maulvi Hibatullah Akhundzada has ordered the construction of a dam on the Kunar River “as soon as possible.” This public statement about the “right to water” comes just weeks after the war between Afghanistan and Pakistan in which hundreds of people were killed.
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This decision of Afghanistan has come after India’s decision to share water with Pakistan. India had put the Indus Water Treaty, under which it shares the waters of the three western rivers, on hold after the killing of 26 civilians by Pakistani and Pakistan-backed militants in Pahalgam on April 22.
Pakistan plans to stop water, prepares to build dam on Kunar river
The Afghan Water and Energy Ministry said Supreme Leader Akhundzada has directed the ministry to begin construction of dams on the Kunar River as soon as possible and sign contracts with domestic companies, Deputy Information Minister Muhajer Farahi posted on Thursday.
London-based Afghan journalist Sami Yousafzai said, “After India, it could be Afghanistan’s turn to restrict Pakistan’s water supply…”. According to Sami Yousafzai, the Supreme Leader “[जल एवं ऊर्जा] “The ministry has been ordered to enter into contracts with domestic Afghan companies instead of waiting for foreign companies.”
The 480 km long Kunar River originates in the Hindu Kush mountains of north-eastern Afghanistan, near the Broghil Pass near the Pakistan border. It flows south through Kunar and Nangarhar provinces and then enters Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, where it joins the Kabul River near the city of Jalalabad. Kunar is called Chitral River in Pakistan.
The Kabul River, into which the Kunar River flows, is the largest and most saturated transboundary river flowing between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Kabul River joins the Indus River near Attock and is important for the irrigation and other water needs of Pakistan, especially its Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Reduction in water flow of Kunar River will have a cascading effect on the Indus River, which will also impact Punjab.
Afghanistan’s move comes after weeks of deadly clashes along the Durand Line, its de facto border with Pakistan, which Kabul says is illegitimate. The Durand Line, drawn by the colonial British, divided the Pashtun homeland into two parts.