After India, Afghanistan to restrict river water to Pakistan
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New Delhi: Afghanistan is mulling over building dams that will restrict water supply to Pakistan, days after two countries fought a war that left several dead, according to reports.
Taliban Supreme Leader Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada has ordered Afghanistan’s ministry to build a dam on the River Kunar ‘as fast as possible’.
The decision comes in line with India’s similar restriction on Pakistan by keeping in abeyance Indus Waters Treaty, which otherwise would have allowed water to Pakistan from three western rivers.
India’s decision followed the horrendous terrorist attack, carried out by Pakistan-based terrorists, in Pahalgam on April 22 that left 26 civilians killed.
It is reported citing Muhajer Farahi, the Deputy Minister of Information that Supreme Leader Akhundzada has instructed to engage domestic companies to construct the dam.
Meanwhile London-based Afghan journalist Sami Yousafzai confirmed the report saying that ‘After India, it may now be Afghanistan's turn to restrict Pakistan's water supply’.
Sami Yousafzai claimed that the Supreme Leader has ‘ordered the [water and energy] ministry to sign contracts with domestic Afghan companies rather than wait for foreign firms’.
Kunar river, originating in the Hindu Kush Mountains of northeastern Afghanistan near the Broghil Pass close to the Pakistan border, flows southward via Kunar and Nangarhar provinces.
The river crosses Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where it is called the Chitral river, before joining the Kabul River near the city of Jalalabad.
Kabul river, the largest and most voluminous transboundary river between two countries, joins the Indus thus becoming crucial source of irrigation and water needs of Pakistan, especially in the country’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.